As he was coming to grips with hardcore central banking issues, we had to deal with some smaller issues from the communication angle. The first issue was his familiarity with the Delhi media. We organized his first press conference to announce the tasks he had listed out for himself. A lady reporter from Delhi media, who was quite influential, insisted on meeting him for an interview.
Rajan didn’t want to start with the media interviews just yet. Since most Delhi media had Rajan’s mobile number, they would ring him directly and it would be difficult for him to say no. This, in fact, was a problem with all executives in the RBI. No one wanted to be unpopular by saying no.
She would keep calling Rajan and he, in turn, would tell me to keep the journalist at bay. But the journalist would not give up. At one point, he told me point-blank, ‘Can you not deal with her?’ My answer was very clear. For me to deal with her, he had to give up dealing with her!
He understood my point and asked me to deal with her. Only then could I make the lady reporter understand that, in the RBI, we followed certain rules that we believed were fair to the media as well as to us. She also understood and backed off. The reporter and I later became good friends.
I have always believed that if you explained your stand to the media, they would understand and appreciate it.
Image Makeover
The second issue we had to deal with as soon as Rajan joined the RBI was his image. When he took over as the governor, one celebrity author wrote a piece on him in the country’s leading financial newspaper.
She had called him ‘James Bond’, punning on the word ‘bond’. The image published with that write-up showed Rajan as James Bond in a Bond-like action. In the article, the columnist had said that ‘the guy’s put “sex” back into the limp sensex’. This was embarrassing. I asked the governor if he was okay with that kind of coverage.
He emphatically said he was not. ‘I have a wife and a young daughter,’ he said and asked me to change that image if I could.
For the next few months, we gave photographs taken by us to the media and did not allow any media person to photograph him unless he was on a public platform. Photos clicked on a public platform were not a concern as, while making a speech in public, he would stand against a lectern and wear his reading glasses on his nose.
This gave him a professorial look, which was the image we wanted to settle with in the media. Later, the bespectacled photograph of Rajan became the norm. His height gave him a certain appeal that would detract from the image of an RBI governor that we wanted for him. So, I had to control his photography sessions with the media and the way he would pose in those sessions.
Is image important for an institution like the RBI and its governor? I would say yes, because an institution like the RBI, which does not deal directly with the public, has to have credibility and trust. Most people do not read, follow or understand what the RBI does, but they intuitively trust this institution and believe that its actions are in their interest and benefit.
And so, the RBI must have an image in the public eye that is trustworthy. I remember a lady acquaintance once telling me to change a certain governor’s photo that routinely appeared in the media. I asked her why, and she told me that the photo did not inspire confidence!
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Citizenship Muddle
When Rajan came in as the governor from Delhi, a controversy followed him—his citizenship. A politician kept instigating the media regarding Rajan’s rumoured US citizenship. Every other day, this would get mentioned in some newspaper or the other. He got quite fed up with this and asked me if there was a way to put this issue to rest.
Before suggesting any way, I asked him if there was any truth in it. His answer was an emphatic no. He had a green card and had never even applied for US citizenship, he told me. The press conference that followed the announcement of every monetary policy was on the anvil at that time.
So I told him that I would get a question asked on his citizenship at the presser and he should answer that question in a straightforward manner. He agreed.
Now I had to look for a journalist who was trustworthy and would look credible in asking that question. I could have asked anyone from the Mumbai brigade to ask that question and I knew I could trust them. But that question coming from a journalist in Mumbai would not look credible. So I set my eyes on the Delhi media.
There was this young journalist, quite sincere and very respectful of the RBI. He covered economy and finance ministry from Delhi for one of the largest circulated newspapers. I took him into confidence; after some reluctance, he agreed to ask the question. Going by his hesitation, I wondered to myself if I should have kept a backup ready, just in case he didn’t ask that question. But I didn’t.
The press conference was progressing, and the journalist was showing no sign of asking any question, leave aside the desired question. I started worrying. We almost came to the close of the conference, when I saw him raise his hand. Since I conducted these conferences, I immediately gave him the opportunity.
He started by asking a question about the policy. Once again, I got worried. He then slipped that question on citizenship almost under his breath. Thankfully, the governor was alert. He caught the question and answered in unequivocal terms that he did not have a foreign passport or citizenship and that he had never applied for one. And the controversy was given a decent burial.
I, naturally, was grateful to that journalist, who remains a friend even today.
This excerpt from ‘A Fly on the RBI Wall: An Insider’s View of the Central Bank’ by Alpana Killawala has been published with permission from Rupa Publications.