Is Raghuram Rajan a politician or economist? FM takes a jab at former RBI guv over growth

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman charged former Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan of "failing to fulfill his duties as a banking regulator", leaving the country's lending ecosystem in torment. 
 
In an exclusive conversation with Rahul Kanwal, Executive Director, Business Today and Siddharth Zarabi, Managing Editor, Business Today, the FM accused Rajan of looking the other way while banks were doing fire-fighting from external pressure. 

“Banks were in torment as the regulator looked the other way and phone calls were going to banks. Rajan should’ve pointed out the rules to banks and protected them from external pressure," the FM said, adding that the former governor should "first clarify whether he puts on the cap of an economist or a politician every time he speaks".

Sitharaman was responding to a question on India's growth rate of 7%, which the former central banker had said wasn't enough and that the country should be really aiming for "9 to 10% growth."

Rajan had observed that at the current rate of growth, India would reach the current per capita income of China by 2047, but by this time it would also have to face an aging population.

Noting that an authoritarian shift with a focus on manufacturing along the lines of China would no longer be an option in the modern day and the global market, Rajan  had pointed that India would have to focus on human capital and the capacity to create intellectual properties.