Urjit Patel has same pedigree as Rajan: Cong

New Delhi, Aug 21: Taking a swipe at the Centre over Urjit Patel's appointment as RBI Governor, the Congress on Saturday said he has the same "pedigree" as his predecessor Raghuram Rajan whom the government did not give a second term.

"If Establishment hounds abhorred Raghuram Rajan's foreign credentials, Urjit Patel has identical pedigree. Different strokes for different folks," Congress leader Manish Tewari said in a tweet.

The Congress leader was apparently referring to Patel being born in Kenya and BJP MP Subramanian Swamy's repeated digs at Rajan for retaining his US green card despite becoming RBI Governor.

Earlier today, after months of speculation, Patel, a Deputy Governor at the RBI, was named as the next chief of India's central bank to succeed Rajan, whose tenure was marked with tough measures to control inflation and headline-making statements.

Rajan, who earned a reputation of being an outspoken critic of the government on various economic and even non-economic issues, was under attack in recent months from some quarters including Swamy for what they termed as his hawkish stance on inflation control at the cost of growth.

PTI