Indian member of parliament (MP) in the upper house and ruling party member, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, has given hope to the crypto community in India.
In an interview last Tuesday’s episode of the Blockworks Group’s Untold Stories podcast, the MP proved a strong voice for cryptocurrencies and said he would give advice to anyone in India who was worried about the recent events with regards to the industry.
The most prominent and daunting news that came from India was the proposed bill and report which looked to outlaw cryptocurrencies within India. This draft bill also went alongside the Royal Bank of India’s (RBI) ban on accounts linked to cryptocurrencies, forcing some exchanges to close.
Yet, Chandrasekhar, the representative of the state of Karnataka looked to quell any fears stating when asked about the draft bill saying:
“don’t worry about what goes on in government, and that is one particular point of view.”
He continued, pointing out that active conversation with MP’s like himself will prove a better outlet for change:
“India is a fairly vibrant democracy in the sense that you can still approach people like me, and evolve an alternate view and have that alternate views be discussed, narrated, and debated within the government. I can do that, you know, I’d encourage you to reach out to me.”
Many crypto industry experts have since looked to take up the MP’s offer. Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO of local crypto exchange Unocoin said he would meet him next week. Nischal Shetty, CEO of local crypto exchange Wazirx will also meet Chandrasekhar.
MP is “happy” to look at RBI ban
The aforementioned RBI ban has gone to the Indian Supreme court as the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) have challenged the bank’s decision. The court has put back the hearing many times and has now called on RBI to respond to the filing which asked what changes exchanges can make. The hearing is set to resume on September 25th.
Chandrasekhar spoke on the hearing saying, “I’m happy to look at it, I’m happy to even suggest an approach that is workable if there is any room for that.”
Help is something the MP has done in the past. He wrote a letter in December 2016 urging the RBI and the Finance minister at the time to create a fair policy when dealing with new technology and look at digitizing the Indian economy. The letter read:
“I am drawing your attention to the need to be ahead of the curve on this rather than behind and so the RBI must develop the capabilities on this urgently.”
Unfortunately, this never happened and this probably has prompted the current situation today. Yet, the situation is not as dire as it may seem, with positivity now being felt in the crypto industry.
Indian Crypto industry more positive
The show of support from an MP in the ruling party is something that appears refreshing for the crypto community in India and has prompted positivity. Vishwanath felt that. “Banning need not be the destiny of crypto in India.” Shetty was similarly confident before his meeting with the MP, telling Bitcoin.com:
“He said he wants to help. And the best thing is that he’s previously helped with net neutrality in India and with making privacy laws better for people…..I’m confident he’ll help us.”
