ENCASHING NEED AND GREED
August
25, 2016
Encashing
need and greed
Quoted below is the concluding observation from RBI Governor Raghuram
Rajan’s opening statement to the post-policy press conference on August 9, 2016:
“If you get
an email from me or any future governor promising to transfer a large sum of
say ₹ 50 lakh to you if only you send a small transaction fee of ₹ 20,000 to a
specific bank account, delete the email. The reality is such emails are not
from me and the RBI does not give out money directly to ordinary citizens, even
though we print plenty of it. While the emails usually contain very convincing
reasons why you have been chosen to receive money, ask yourself why I cannot
simply deduct ₹ 20,000 and send you ₹ 49.8 lakh. If you think for a moment, you
should not fall prey to such emails.”
Recalling
this, in the context of a report relating to an FIR filed by police after duped
kidney ‘donor’ tried to end her life, published in a leading newspaper on August
25, 2016. The report, inter alia says:
“The Borivili
police on Wednesday registered an FIR in connection with the case of a 23-year
old woman being defrauded by a kidney agent, driving her to attempt suicide.
The agent had offered Rs 35 lakh to the woman if she agreed to donate her
kidney. The catch was that she would first have to pay up Rs 80,000 as fees for
registration and medical examination”
I think,
media should give wide publicity to the parting message given by the outgoing
RBI Governor which in essence means that if someone is going to give you
something free or intend to make a huge payment for whatever reason, one need
to remember that it is ridiculous for the giver to collect in advance a relatively
small sum towards expenses like registration fee, medical examination, handling
and forwarding charges etc. The person can as well give a gift of smaller value
or make the payment after deducting costs.
Let us not
allow others to encash our need or greed!
M G Warrier, Mumbai
Comments