Stanley Pignal, The Economist’s Mumbai-based correspondent, was barred from entering a press conference conducted by the Reserve Bank of India on its policy and interest rates announcements, causing major uproar on social and mainstream media today.
Pignal tweeted:
This “shunning” of The Economist, a worldwide respected journal of British origin, with matters concerning the political economy and economic policies getting special attention, as its title suggests, comes right after the magazine carried two scathing articles of the now month-long demonetisation drive, first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 this year.
Pignal expressed his shock, dismay and distress on Twitter in the following words, drawing attention to the peerless irony that the RBI spokeswoman herself assured him that decision to leave him out of the press conference had nothing to do with those less than flattering pieces.
It must be noted that The Economist is not alone in being left out from the RBI good books. Even BBC complained that its journalist were kept out from the press conference, as were some Indian media houses that have been “critical” of the recent RBI faux pas, particularly its galling silence under Governor Urjit Patel, even as the Modi government bungled from one fiasco to another in order to plug the gaping hole that’s demonetisation.
RBI kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.25 per cent, but “cautioned” India that “temporary setbacks” would be felt, in terms of job losses and lower growth rate for a while.
It is interesting that exactly when the PM announces that India intends to make global strides in expanding the economy, and does photo-ops with British PM Theresa May, trying to get a bargain for obtaining a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council, the country’s central bank rubs one of the most prestigious British magazine the wrong way. Is this move the right way to assure foreign investors, we wonder.
As expected Twitter went on an overdrive to criticise this move.
Also read - Bank deposit surge may end up derailing demonetisation
