RBI governor Raghuram Rajan’s parents on Tuesday said that the economist would have been happy to continue in his position if the government had intervened in the controversy over his second term ‘promptly’.

“I feel if the government had responded promptly when the attacks started, possibly he wouldn’t have come to this decision,” Govindarajan, Rajan’s father told Arun Janardhanan of The Indian Express.

He added, “The entire world is watching this, the way he was subjected to a series of attacks and controversy,” but “as a father, I need not speak for him.”

Rajan had come under severe attack from BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, who had questioned his dedication to India, and called him an American agent. While Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and later the Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke out against these attacks, their defence of Rajan was widely seen as coming too late. 

Rajan’s mother, Mythili, said in the same interview, “Let anyone question his policies, or style of functioning. But isn’t it unfair attacking someone personally, questioning his patriotism?”

However, she added, “It doesn’t matter even if he didn’t get timely support from the government. He may be hurt but it won’t affect him in anyway.”