Has India benefited from the import of US-trained financial experts? Or were their ideas too radical?

With the resignation of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Viral Acharya, one question that must be asked is, “whose brainchild was this flawed idea of importing economists and bankers from the United States into India’s system?” A follow-up would be if it was a flawed idea or did India bow to the tricks of US lobbies to infiltrate their men in India’s crucial decision-making systems by the US-fancied political leadership in India?

This US import syndrome started with Raghuram Rajan (R3) as the Chief Economic Advisor during corrupt Chidambaram’s tenure in the Finance Ministry in 2012 and elevation as the RBI Governor in 2013. Huge public relations machinery was put in place to boost the image of Rajan. Even some socialite ladies and cheer girls in the media world wrote and tweeted orgasmic pieces on how sexy the RBI Governor looked[1].

Rajan’s singular “achievement” was the destruction of India’s Small Scale and Medium Scale industry (MSME) by keeping the interest rates high. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Economics Professor Subramanian Swamy had to put his foot down and expose Rajan’s flawed policies to ensure that his term was not renewed. Till the last moment, MSM kept singing praises of their adorable Rajan.

Modi fell for it too…

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also carried away by these US imports. One of the worst appointments was the posting of Arvind Subramanian as the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA). It is a known fact that Modi was bowing to the pressure of the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, a buddy of the corrupt Chidambaram. Arvind Subramanian, during the UPA regime, was writing articles critical of Modi in the garb of an Economist[2]. He even wrote that Modi is mediocre and his Gujarat model development was a sham and that the best was Nitish Kumar’s Bihar Model. Yet such a person became the Chief Economic Advisor of the Modi Government. Can someone explain this?

Later Arvind Subramanian was caught by Subramanian Swamy for advocating against India at the US Senate Committee for his then-employer, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. His speech is now viral on YouTube arguing how the United States should pressurise India for the benefit of US pharma-firms[3]. Fortunately, after some time later Modi realised the frauds of Raghuram Rajan and Arvind Subramanian and denied them extensions, ignoring Jaitley’s recommendations. Now both are Modi haters and ridicule and talk against Modi like the old fox Amartya Sen, who looted Nalanda University.

The Modi Government again erred in appointing another import Urjit Patel as the RBI Governor after Rajan’s exit. He too left without completing the tenure. The fact of the matter is that these foreign imports found themselves out of sync with the grand Indian Economic system, that caters to 130 crores people.

The worst was the import of Arvind Panagariya as the Chief of Niti Aayog. He was really a fish out of water in the Niti Aayog with non-practical ideas that drew chuckles in several Cabinet meetings.

Rajiv Gandhi had nixed R3’s father’s role in RAW

R3 was PC’s good friend, an Indian Police Service (IPS) Officer Govind Rajan’s son. Govind Rajan was terminated by Rajiv Gandhi from the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) when he was the acting Chief of RAW. There were allegations that the RAW officer’s son Rajan’s US admission was sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1987. Veterans say that Rajiv Gandhi was alerted of Govind Rajans’ son’s admission by the then IB chief M K Narayanan by producing the US education institutes’ fees receipts.

Anyway, in 2012, PC brought back his discredited friend’s son as the CEA after 26 years.

Why? Why? Why?

Here the billion dollars question why Indian political leadership is so enamored about the imported economists and bankers, mainly from the United States. It is time for Indian political leadership to steer the economy properly, using models that will work for India, a savings based economy. We hope the much fancied lateral recruitment in Government services is implemented correctly and not a posting of some corporate infiltration or of nepotism.

References:

[1] The ‘sexy’ central banker who’s causing a stir – Oct 10, 2013, CNBC.com

[2] Arvind Subramanian: Is the Modi miracle overrated? Jan 29, 2013, Business Standard

[3] India pressured by U S Congressional committee, Pfizer, over drug patents – Mar 26, 2013, KEIonline.org