Two PMs & a countdown to financial crisis - T. C. A. SRINIVASA-RAGHAVAN

Who actually was responsible for the 1991 balance of payments crisis? Rajiv Gandhi or V.P. Singh? Therein lies a tale. In 2004, I was asked by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to edit and rewrite volume three of their history. During the process, we came up against significant blanks because the record was not fully complete in that many statements were unsupported — not as to what had happened but as to why they had happened in that particular way and not in some other way. In 2006, after work on volume three was over, I was able to persuade the RBI that it should allow an oral history to be recorded. All the main dramatis personae of the 1991 crisis — and several others — would be interviewed on audio and videotape. This would help future historians. A very senior officer of the RBI, Dr. T.K. Chakrabarty and I interviewed around 40 officers from the bank and the Finance Ministry. Those tapes are now in the RBI’s archives in Pune and can be accessed if the Governor grants permission. Another way, I imagine, is to use the RTI route because there is no security involved.............

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