Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan joined Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Rajasthan on December 14.
Videos on social media showed Mr. Rajan and the former Congress chief having a discussion while marching as the Congress’ yatra resumed from Bhadoti of Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan this morning.
Sharing a picture of the two, the Congress tweeted in Hindi: “Shri Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of RBI, with @RahulGandhi ji… The increasing number of people standing up to unite the country against hatred shows that we will be successful.”
Mr. Rajan, a vocal critic of demonetisation and other economic policies, had blamed the Narendra Modi-led government’s “political and social agenda for the economic slowdown”.
He was the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India between September 2013 and September 2016. Between 2003 and 2006, he was the Chief Economist and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund.
Responding to the former RBI governor’s participation, BJP leader Amit Malviya said Mr. Rajan “fancies himself as the next Manmohan Singh.”
The Bharat Jodo yatra will mark 100 days on December 16.
The yatra started from Kanniyakumari on September 7 and has so far covered Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. It will conclude in Jammu and Kashmir in early February 2023.
Rajasthan is the only Congress-ruled state the yatra has entered and will cover about 500 km over 17 days before entering Haryana on December 21.
(With inputs from PTI)
