Fact Check: Mahatma Gandhi to be replaced on currency notes? RBI issues clarification

After some reports suggested that the Union finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India were planning to use the faces of other prominent Indians, including Rabindranath Tagore and APJ Abdul Kalam, on banknotes, the central bank has issued a clarification.

Dismissing the reports and claims, the RBI said that there is no proposal to replace Mahatma Gandhi with others on existing currency and banknotes.

"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," RBI Chief General Manager Yogesh Dayal said in a statement.

Hence, according to the Reserve Bank, there is no proposal to replace Gandhi on currency notes. The reports and claims on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are fake.

This is not the first time that such claims have been made, and the RBI has refuted them on previousoccasions too.

The image of Mahatma Gandhi first appeared on the commemorative currency note of Rs 100 on his birth centenary in 1969. But the portrait of the Father of the Nation made its regular appearance on currency notes in 1987 with the Rs 500 series. Since then, Mahatma Gandhi's portrait has been used on currency notes of different denominations.

Image: PTI