Congress' asks PM Modi to clarify his position.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy has put his own government in a fix, again. After targeting RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, Swamy has trained his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian, a possible successor of Rajan, demanding his sacking. But unlike in the case of Rajan, both BJP and the government came out strongly to defend the CEA, saying they have full faith in him.
Congress hit out asking the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come clean or whether he has 'plans to hand over the finance ministry to Swamy'. Congress leader Digvijay Singh alleged that Swamy’s real targets were not either Rajan or Subramanian, but finance minister Arun Jaitley.
Swamy’s attack came on a day, when government unveiled the new textile policy to boost exports and employment, authored by Subrmanian. He is stated to have been behind the recently announced new FDI policy as well.
The BJP MP fired two tweets in the morning, setting off a buzz since 8am. "Who said to US Cong on 13/3/13 the US should act against India to defend US Pharmaceuticals interests? Arvind Subramanian MoF !! Sack him!!!," he said in his first tweet. In another tweet, he said: "Guess who encouraged Congi to become rigid on GST clauses? Jaitely's economic adviser Arvind Subramanian of Washington DC."
Later in the day, Swamy even sharpened his attack further, saying, Arvind Subramanian used to work in America. He even questioned his citizenship. “Don’t even know if he’s a citizen or not but I’m sure he has a green card.
Such people who can fail our Govt, such people should be tossed out." Subramanian took over as the CEA to the Government of India on October 16, 2014, succeeding Raghuram Rajan, who left the post to become the RBI governor in 2013.
Earlier, Subramanian was an economist at the International Monetary Fund, and is a highly renowned expert on the economics of India, China, and as well as the changing balance of global economic power. In the year 2011, he was named as one of world's top 100 global thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine.
The BJP as also finance minister Arun Jaitley distanced from his tirade. BJP secretary Shrikant Sharma said the party does not agree with Dr Swamy's views on Subramanian as it was his personal opinion. Jaitley came out in full defence of his CEA, saying "I have full confidence in Arvind Subramanian." Jaitley, said that the government has "full confidence" in Subramanian as Chief Economic Adviser and cautioned against the trend of attacking persons whose "office and discipline constrain them from responding to baseless charges".
Even after this admonition, Dr Swamy, kept on his tirade. Nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the BJP recently, he met Home Minister Rajnath Singh after this diatribe. In more tweets on Subramanian, who is an NRI, he said:
"Now PTs (Patriotic Tweeples) can understand why our core economic sectors could not perform last two years. Trojan horses galore in MoF/Fin Institutions." "Was AS (Arvind Subramanian) deposing before US Cong Committee against India as a US citizen or Indian? Does any PT know," he asked.
Reacting to the attack, Congress general secretary Divijaya Singh said Dr Swamy's target is not Subramanian but Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and asked Prime Minister Modi if he were handing over the finance ministry to Swamy.
"Subramanian Swamy now guns for Arvind Subramanian Economic Advisor to NDA. Target is Arun Jaitley not Arvind Subramanian. Is Modi handing over Finance Ministry to Subramanian Swamy? He has been claiming that PM has assured him as quid pro quo if he targeted Nehru Gandhi Family," Singh said in a series of tweets.
Jaitley also refuted reports that the government had not reined in Swamy's shrill campaign against Rajan earlier. The Finance Minister said the BJP President Amit Shah had distanced party from the remarks, classifying them as "personal" remarks.
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