A post is being shared on social media with a claim that the post consists of excerpts from the book – ‘Advice and Dissent: My Life in Public Service’, an autobiography of former RBI Governor Y. V. Reddy. In the post, it is also being claimed that India did not take any loan from the World Bank between 2015-2019. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim 1: Excerpts from the book – ‘Advice and Dissent: My Life in Public Service’, an autobiography of former RBI Governor Y. V. Reddy.
Fact: Most of the quotes in the post are exaggerated and not referred to by Y. V. Reddy in the same context in his book. There are also some factual errors. Also, the autobiography ends in December 2014, so he did not talk about the Indian economy during the Modi government in his book. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
There are many discrepancies in what Y. V. Reddy has written in his autobiography and what is written in the post. Let’s compare them below:
STATEMENT IN THE POST: ‘RBI had to pledge around 47 Tons of Gold for just Rs 40 Crore’.
EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK: ‘The RBI had to ship 47 tonnes of gold to the Bank of England to raise $405 million.’
DIFFERENCE: It is not just 40 crores but $405 million [i.e. around Rs 900 crores (exchange rate – Rs 22.68 / 1 USD in 1991)]
STATEMENT IN THE POST: ‘The case of brokerage in Bofors Guns leaked out’.
EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK: ‘The leeway available in commercial agreements entered into by the government with other governments and agencies was also explored. The intention was to delay such payments, without technically incurring default. Large payment obligations were looked at to explore the scope for temporary relief. One such agreement that involved large payout was identified as the arms purchase contract signed with the Swedish firm Bofors. My hope was that when the order was placed with this firm, as is often the case, it was linked to some offset arrangement, such as mandatory export of commodities from India. I, therefore, sought access to the relevant papers and found that all instalments for the Bofors arms supply had to be paid promptly without any reference to the timing of fulfilment of any offset export of commodities from India to Sweden. Our exercise proved to be futile since all such agreements were watertight in terms of discharging our obligations to pay for import.’
DIFFERENCE: He did not say anything about the brokerage in Bofors agreement or any leaks coming out. He referred to it only in the context of looking for an option of getting temporary relief by delaying some large payment obligations.
STATEMENT IN THE POST: ‘47 tonnes of Gold was sent on a very old RBI Private Van and was sent with Two Security Guards and a Driver. On its way to Airport, its two tyres got punctured and it took nearly Hours to get the tyres changed and the entire Gold was guarded by Two aged Security Guards.’
EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK: ‘The van that was transporting gold from the vaults of RBI to the airport in Mumbai in a night-time operation punctured a tyre. While the sound of the tyre burst drew attention, more noticeably still, as the van came to a stop, armed guards escorting the truck jumped out and took position all around it instantly. This invited curiosity among a few bystanders (mercifully there were no mobile cameras at that time to record the scene!)’.
DIFFERENCE: The incident has been exaggerated, saying old van with old-aged guards, to show that India at that time was in deplorable condition.
STATEMENT IN THE POST: ‘Mr Y.V.Reddy further goes and writes that he was shocked and angry when people who earlier Mortgaged the whole country for just Rs 40 crore are now blaming say that Modi Government has ruined India’s economy’.
EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK: ‘The story begins with my birth in 1941 and our gaining Independence in 1947. It ends with my submitting the report of the Fourteenth Finance Commission in December 2014.’
DIFFERENCE: He did not make any such statement, as mentioned in the post, in his book as the book does not discuss the events after 2014.
The reasons mentioned by him in his book for the situation in 1991 can be read below:
Claim 2: Indian Government did not take any loan from the World Bank between 2015 and 2019
Fact: Indian Government & various state governments took loans from the World Bank for many projects even during the period 2015-19. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When searched on the World Bank website about the loans taken by India, it can be found that India took loan under different categories for different central and state projects across India, from the World Bank’s IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and IDA (International Development Association) even during the period 2015 – 2019. The details can be found in the image below.
To sum it up, most of the statements in the post were not made by former RBI Governor Y. V. Reddy in his autobiography. Also, the Indian Government took loans from the World Bank for many projects even during the period 2015-19.
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