Was it hubris or plain arrogance on part of Arvind Subramanian to show up at scam-tainted NDTV channel? The nation wants to know...

In was un-cool on part of the government’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian to give an interview to a scam-tainted TV Channel, NDTV. What is the messaging here? That he does not care for the fact that Prannoy Roy, the owner of the controversial TV channel NDTV, is facing probes by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)? Being a newspaper reader and columnist, Arvind Subramanian must be aware of the cases registered against Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, the promoters of NDTV. He does work with the Finance Ministry and has to be aware of ED’s cases under Foreign Exchange Maintenance Act (FEMA) and forthcoming cases under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against NDTV. The CBI has already registered a First Information Report (FIR) on Prannoy Roy for cheating ICICI Bank.

Arvind Subramanian was a UPA appointee and a critique of Narendra Modi to butter his Congress masters. He was former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s nominee and surprisingly the NDA Government is continuing with him as the Chief Economic Advisor.

Noted Professor in Finance R Vaidyanathan tweeted:

Amazing:Chief economuc advisor prefer and give exclusive inrerview to Prannoy Roy of @NDTV which is under ED investigation of FinMin- for money laundering etc-wht an incestuous don't care attitude–in any other country he would hve been sacked–but we r unique:)))))) — RVAIDYA2000 (@rvaidya2000) January 29, 2018

Mr. Arvind Subramanian, what ethics do you keep in public life, entertaining an interview with CBI case accused Prannoy Roy? Have you asked him why he is not paying the Income Tax fine of Rs.425 crores? This is highly unacceptable. Apart from ICICI Bank cheating case registered by CBI, Roy is also facing ED’s Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violation and illegal routing of Rs.2030 crores. Now ED has declared to Bombay High Court that they are registering a money laundering case also.

Moreover, Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has also exposed the money laundering of Prannoy Roy and gang through tax havens. And Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) of the country is engaging the accused caught for bank frauds, stock exchange manipulations, money laundering and tax evasions. As rightly said by Professor R Vaidyanathan, these things will happen only in India.

The SEBI is still doing a “slow-paced” probe on the stock exchange manipulations by Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had exposed last year that Arvind Subramanian, on behalf of the Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer had argued against India in a US legislative body.

Arvind Subramanian was a UPA appointee and a critique of Narendra Modi to butter his Congress masters. He was former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s nominee and surprisingly the NDA Government is continuing with him as the Chief Economic Advisor. In Business Standard newspaper, he once described Modi as mediocre and blamed the Gujarat model and even went to the extent of writing that the best model was that of Bihar by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Those days Nitish had left the NDA and was attacking Modi tooth and nail. It is a different matter that Nitish had to eat humble pie and get re-admitted into the NDA fold as the grass on the other side was decidedly not greener.

It behooves Arvind Subramanian to realise that the discerning populace will take a dim view of his decision to show up at NDTV.