RBI Junks Report Claiming Replacement of Mahatma Gandhi's Photo on Bank Notes

The Reserve Bank of India on Monday, June 6, rejected reports claiming that it was considering changes to the existing bank notes and would replace the face of Mahatma Gandhi with that of Rabindranath Tagore and APJ Abdul Kalam and issue a new series of currency notes. The central bank said that there was no such proposal, thus dismissing the report.

“There are reports in certain sections of the media that the Reserve Bank of India is considering changes to the existing currency and banknotes by replacing the face of Mahatma Gandhi with that of others. It may be noted that there is no such proposal in the Reserve Bank,” the central bank said in a statement on the day, which it also posted on Twitter.

As per a report by moneycontrol.com, RBI chief general manager Yogesh Dayal also refuted to the claims. “There are reports in certain sections of the media that the Reserve Bank of India is considering changes to the existing currency and banknotes by replacing the face of Mahatma Gandhi with that of others. It may be noted that there is no such proposal in the Reserve Bank,” said Dayal.

The statements from RBI and Dayal come after a day various publications reporte citing an article that the central bank and the finance ministry were mulling  to add the images of Bengal’s cultural icon and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, and India’s late president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on the bank and currency notes thereby replacing current images of Mahatma Gandhi, an icon of India’s freedom struggle.

The report, first published in the New Indian Express, claimed that the changes were being implemented. “The Father of the Nation’s watermark figure occupies the pride of place on all denominations of Indian currency notes. However, the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are also reportedly considering using the watermark figures of Tagore and Kalam on a new series of banknotes of some denominations,” it said.

The June 5 report had also claimed that RBI and the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India (SPMCIL) had sent “two separate sets of samples of Gandhi, Tagore and Kalam watermarks to IIT Delhi Emeritus Professor Dilip T Shahani”. The newspaper reported quoting government sources that Shahani was asked to choose from the designs and submit them to the government before final consideration.

This was the first time that it was reported that the RBI was considering using the images of famous personalities other than Mahatma Gandhi on the banknotes. However, the report turned out to be untrue, as per the RBI which dismissed all such claims regarding the changes.

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