Lack of tolerance to criticism can lead to mistakes in policy making: Raghuram Rajan
New Delhi, Oct 01: Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan in a hard-hitting blog has argued that a lack of tolerance towards the public as well as internal criticism can lead to mistakes in policymaking.
Rajan also said it is only criticism that prompts government to take period policy course correction.
"If every critic gets a phone call from a government functionary asking them to back off, or gets targeted by the ruling party's troll army, many will tone down their criticism," Rajan said.
The government will then live in a pleasant make-believe environment until the harsh truth can no longer be denied," said Rajan emphasising that people in the authority have to tolerate criticism.
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"Undoubtedly, some of the criticism, including in the press, is ill-informed, motivated, and descends into ad-hominem personal attacks. I have certainly had my share of those in past jobs. However, suppressing criticism is a sure-fire recipe for policy mistakes," he said.
"Governments that suppress public criticism do themselves a gross disservice," he added.
Rajan's observations come in the backdrop of the Modi government removing Rathin Roy and Shamika Ravi from the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister as they were critical of the government's policies.
They had questioned the government's decision to borrow funds from overseas markets through the sale of sovereign bonds.
OneIndia News (with PTI inputs)