Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel has resigned. Submitting his papers on Monday, Patel has said that he has stepped down for  ” personal reason”.

“On account of personal reasons, I have decided to step down from my current position effective immediately. It has been my privilege and honour to serve in the Reserve Bank of India in various capacities over the years. The support and hard work of RBI staff, officers and management has been the proximate driver of the Bank’s considerable accomplishments in recent years. I take this opportunity to express gratitude to my colleagues and Directors of the RBI Central Board, and wish them all the best for the future.”. 

Patel’s resignation came just three days before the next RBI Board meeting, schedule to be held on December 14, 2018. 

The RBI was under pressure from the Central government for the last couple of months. Such was the pressure that RBI deputy governor Viral Acharya outburst in a public meeting whining about the interference of the government. 

The Central government and the federal bank were at logger heads over various issues like transfer of RBI’s surplus fund to government, liqudity, credit flow and controls governing weak banks.  

The union finance minister Arun Jaitley has twitted, “The Government acknowledges with deep sense of appreciation the services rendered by Dr. Urjit Patel to this country both in his capacity as the Governor and the Deputy Governor of The RBI. It was a pleasure for me to deal with him and benefit from his scholarship. I wish Dr. Patel all the very best and many more years of public service.” 

The prime minister, Narendra Modi, in his tweet said, “Dr Urjit Patel is an economist of a very high calibre with a deep and insightful understanding of macro-economic issues. He steered the banking system from chaos to order and ensured discipline. Under his leadership, the RBI brought financial stability. Dr. Urjit Patel is a thorough professional with impeccable integrity. He has been in the Reserve Bank of India for about 6 years as Deputy Governor and Governor. He leaves behind a great legacy. We will miss him immensely.”

The former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, however, said that the government need to understand what prompted the governor to resign.