Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said that Urjit Patel is not the first governor to have resigned, others have resigned in the past as well.

Speaking at Agenda Aaj Tak 2018, Arun Jaitley recalled what Jawaharlal Nehru once told Sir Benegal Rama Rau, the longest serving governor of India's central bank.

The former prime minister told Rau that economic policy was to be framed by the government, and monetary policy was to be framed by the Reserve Bank, Jaitley said. Nehru also said other policies, such as credit policy, had to be in support of the government's economic policy.

Sir Benegal Rama Rau was the first RBI governor to resign because of his differences with then government led by the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who wrote strongly-worded letter about the nature of RBI's function.

Urjit Patel had resigned on December 10, citing "personal reasons". After Patel's resignation, the Narendra Modi-government appointed former bureaucrat Shaktikanta Das as the Governor of RBI.

During the discussion, FM said that the government never sought the resignation of Urjit Patel as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

Jaitley also said the Central government respects autonomy and independence of the RBI and there was no truth that government was pressuring the central bank.

"There is no threat to RBI's autonomy," said Jaitley.

Jaitley's comments assume significance as they come at a time when tension between the RBI and the government has become public after Urjit Patel resigned as Governor of Reserve Bank of India amid tussle over autonomy and independence of the central bank.

The Finance Minister has directly blamed the Congress party for mishandling the country's finances which led to rise in bad loans. Jaitley accused the Congress for ruined India's banking system.

"The Non-Performing Assets (NPA) of the banks amounted to Rs 8.5 lakh crore under the UPA government, but the Reserve Bank had then said on paper that the NPA was of only Rs 2.5 lakh crore," Arun Jaitley said.

"The banking crisis that existed has fizzled out now. Our government has been making efforts to de-stress the banks," he added.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar