A viral WhatsApp forward and social media post has falsely claimed that former Reserve Bank of India Governor Dr. Y.V. Reddy, in his book "Advice and Dissent: My Life in Public Service," listed businesspersons who “robbed the banks in connivance with congressmen.”
This claim is false. The book does not mention any such list or individuals. Instead, it focuses on Reddy's experiences in public service, economic policy, and his interactions with political figures during his time as RBI Governor from 2003 to 2008.
The viral post claims that Reddy's book mentions a "golden period of bank robbery" from 2004-2014, allegedly orchestrated by the Gandhi family and Congress leaders, leading “ country's economy into the abyss”. It lists 28 individuals, including Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi, and Nirav Modi, claiming that they robbed banks with Congress's help, amounting to 10 trillion Indian Rupees, supposedly sent abroad in USD.
However, this is not the first time such a claim has surfaced. Previously, BOOM debunked a similar claim which stated that Reddy, in his book, said that India hadn't borrowed from the World Bank under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Fact-check
BOOM reviewed Reddy's book, Advice and Dissent: My Life in Public Service, which was published in 2017. We found that the names listed in the claim do not appear in the book.
The book begins with a discussion on bureaucracy and Reddy's career as a bureaucrat. It covers his various roles, including his time as a lecturer, stint with the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank, his tenure as Governor of the RBI, and as chairman of the Fourteenth Finance Commission. The storyline of the book ends in December 2014 with the submission of the finance commission's report.
The book talks about the Emergency in India which was imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. It also includes separate chapters about his interactions with former colleagues and politicians such as Dr. C. Rangarajan (economist and former RBI Governor), Bimal Jalan (former RBI Governor), Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh), former Finance Ministers Jaswant Singh and P. Chidambaram.