Former vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar is not the only high official to have suddenly stepped down in the 11-plus years that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been in power.
Technocrats and key policy-makers have distanced themselves from Modi and his government on a wide number of issues over the years. Here is a quick reminder of six of the resignations, some abrupt and some expected, that made it to the headlines for days.
1. Raghuram Rajan, RBI governor (2013-2016)
Handpicked by Manmohan Singh in the last year of the UPA-II government, Raghuram Rajan, an economist and academic, returned to his teaching job at the University of Chicago, refusing a second term in September 2016.
A former chief economist with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Rajan had predicted the 2008 global financial crisis.
Known for speaking his mind, his public statements, especially on the economic policies followed by Modi in his first term, did not go down well with a government that often draws criticism for being prickly about criticism of any kind.
Rajan had reported differences with the government on demonetisation and the electoral bonds scheme, which the Supreme Court struck down last year.
Nirmala Sitharaman, then the Union commerce minister, had publicly criticised and contradicted a comment of Rajan’s on India’s growth. Subramanian Swamy had also gone hammer and tongs at Rajan.
More than a year after his departure, Rajan had opened up on his opposition to demonetisation, which was done two months after his departure from India’s central bank.
2. Urjit Patel, RBI governor (2016-2018)
Days before a crucial RBI board meeting in December 2018, the Kenya-born Urjit Patel announced his resignation citing “personal reasons”.
Why he resigned without completing his first term has been widely debated since his exit nearly seven years ago.
Patel, who had succeeded Raghuram Rajan as the chief of India’s central bank and braved the demonetisation storm, is believed to have been involved in several run-ins with the Narendra Modi government.
Patel’s exit was a shocker not just for the investors but the government, too, which had chosen him to replace Rajan in the hot seat.
One of the reasons that has been cited in published reports as the cause of rift between Patel and the government was its insistence on the central bank parting with some of its Rs 3.6 trillion ($48.73 billion) reserves to help overcome the fiscal deficit.
The Centre had reportedly threatened to invoke a never-before-used rule – Section 7 of the RBI Act – to force the RBI to shell out Rs. 3 lakh crore from the reserves, apparently to cover up the so-called demonetisation-dividend loss. Patel and the government reportedly had differences on interest rate policies.
Another widely speculated reason is the Modi government’s push for electoral bonds, which Patel’s predecessor Rajan had opposed as well.
Patel had questioned the late Union finance minister Arun Jaitley about the issuance of bonds by any bank other than the RBI, equating bonds to currency solely issued by the RBI.
Patel had also suggested the bonds be issued in digital mode, not physical, issued after due KYC process. His final proposal was the political parties to collect the proceeds of the digital bonds by going to the bank, which would have left a trail for both the Election Commission and the RBI, which would have killed the anonymous donor concept that the government was most keen on.
Rajan had said Patel’s resignation was a mark of protest against the government.
3. Viral Acharya, RBI deputy governor (2017-2019)
Viral Acharya hit the headlines in October 2018 when he delivered a sharp speech on the need to ensure the RBI’s independence, with a warning that any move to undermine its autonomy could be “potentially catastrophic”.
Acharya’s comments came at a time when the rift between the Narendra Modi government and India’s central bank was escalating that ultimately led to the exit of then RBI governor Urjit Patel.
Acharya had put in his papers just weeks before the meeting of the RBI’s monetary policy committee.
Acharya, who headed the RBI’s monetary policy department, had clashed with then governor Shaktikanta Das over government finances and the method behind Modi government’s fiscal deficit estimates.
A month before his resignation on “personal grounds” Acharya reportedly had differences with Das during a meeting of the monetary policy committee, where he had reportedly raised the issue of inflation from fiscal slippages.
4. Arvind Subramanian, chief economic advisor (2014-2018)
Chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian had conveyed his decision to head back to the US for a family commitment, the birth of his grandchild, in 2018 in a video-conference with Arun Jaitley, who was ailing then. .
Appointed CEA in October 2014 for a three-year term, Subramanian was asked to stay back by Jaitley himself.
On a sabbatical from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, where he was a senior fellow, Subramanian – like Raghuram Rajan – had come under severe attack from the RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Subramanian Swamy for his pro-privatisation pitch, including for Air India.
Swamy had once publicly attacked Subramanian for his support to Washington’s stand on intellectual property rights. Then Union finance minister Jaitley had to intervene.
Though reticent to comment on public issues unlike Rajan, Subramanian has since his departure been far more vocal against the government.
After Pratap Bhanu Mehta was let go from Ashoka University, Subramanian too resigned, writing: “That even Ashoka – with its private status and backing by private capital – can no longer provide a space for academic expression and freedom is ominously disturbing.”
Talking to veteran journalist Karan Thapar, in January this year, Subramanian, the first chief economic adviser of Narendra Modi, said: “On all fronts, the economy is not in great shape.”
5. Ashok Lavasa (2018-2020) and 6. Arun Goel (2022-2024), election commissioners
Just days before the 2024 Lok Sabha election schedule was announced, Election Commissioner Arun Goel submitted his resignation.
Goel’s departure left the central poll panel with only one member, then chief election commissioner Rajeev Kumar.
Why exactly Goel, a 1985-batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre, quit a day before he was to visit Bengal for a pre-poll recce, still remains unknown.
Had Goyal served his full five-year term, he would have been the next chief election commissioner and not Gyanesh Kumar, who was chosen by a committee that included PM Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and a dissenting Adhir Chowdhury of the Congress, the then leader of the party in the Lok Sabha.
There was speculation of Goel’s differences with then CEC Rajeev Kumar. The opposition parties had alleged Goel was forced to step down just before the elections were announced for the government to allow its nominees in the central poll panel.
Two years before Goel’s appointment to the central poll panel, election commissioner Ashok Lavasa, who had given several dissent notes on alleged infringement of campaign rules by Modi and Shah during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, had stepped down.
Income-tax investigations were later started against five members of his family. He was also allegedly among those targeted with Pegasus spyware.