If there is an opportunity to be of use, I will always be there,” said former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan at the launch of his book The Third Pillar in Delhi last week. That’s as good as confirming rumours that the celebrated economist would love to be made the finance minister of a non-BJP government.
Adding grist to the mill is the admission that he advised the Congress party on its proposed Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY) to eradicate poverty. He does insist he has no political ambitions, he’s only an academic, but doesn’t deny the rumours either.
It’s clear by now that Raghuram Rajan wouldn’t mind being a ‘technocrat’ who is politically appointed to a top position to give direction to the Indian economy. That is a welcome thought, given that he’s a globally celebrated economist, and someone who comes across as balanced and persuasive.
Also read: Never mind the Rs 28,000 crore, RBI gave highest dividend in 2015 under Raghuram Rajan
Yet, there’s something tiresome about this annual ritual of Raghuram Rajan doing a book launch and 50 interviews in a day and coyly denying his political ambitions in a way that only furthers them. In other words, Raghuram Rajan has become a political tourist.
There’s no dearth of political tourists in the Congress party who want to be made ministers through the Rajya Sabha when the Congress is in power and then go back to their non-political professional pursuits when the party is out of power.
Liberals can’t stop swooning over RRR, but it has to be said that he could have done a lot more for India, and a lot better. By now, we can see that this has been a lost decade for the Indian economy. The politics of this country has come in the way of India’s ambition to realise its economic potential. To fix the economy, it is the politics that has to be fixed.
The best lack all conviction
Raghuram Rajan is no ordinary economist, and he’s no ordinary ex-RBI chief. How many former Reserve Bank of India governors do most people remember? And, he was an extra-ordinary RBI governor, flagging bank frauds and the non-performing assets mess early on. He refused to buckle under pressure to cut interest rates because he rightly pointed out that the problem in credit flow was due to the NPA mess, not interest rates, and that the RBI had a responsibility to keep inflation in check.
When Raghuram Rajan took over as the RBI governor amidst economic gloom in 2013, a newspaper drew a graphic showing him as James Bond. The accompanying headline read: “The man who predicted world’s future set out to correct India’s present”.
Also read: India to become bigger than China eventually, says former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan
Precisely because Raghuram Rajan is a bit of a rockstar, he could have done a lot more to shape India’s public debate since he left office in September 2016.
RRR could have gone around India’s colleges and think tanks, its lit fests and seminars, making a case for a new imagination of Indian politics and economics. He could have done this with or without joining Indian politics. But he wants the easy way out. A book a year doesn’t let us forget him, and like manna from heaven, the finance minister’s job will one day fall in his lap.
The best lack all conviction, wrote Yeats, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. That is sadly the state of India’s public debate today. Raghuram Rajan has the enviable quality of giving us hope. He gives you the impression of a person who can make sense. That is a rarity in Indian public life today, and that is why we need much more of Raghuram Rajan than one interview jamboree a year.
The missing hero
He doesn’t have to do it, one might argue. He’s an academic, he says, not a politician. He’s even said his wife prohibits him from joining politics, leaving open to interpretation whether or not he would like to do it.
Perhaps Raghuram Rajan doesn’t want to be a finance minister. Perhaps it’s just a Delhi rumour. Perhaps it’s just a way his Hindutva detractors have found to delegitimise his independent criticism of the Narendra Modi government.
Yet, it is Rajan himself who doesn’t categorically deny that aspiration and instead says he’s available if opportunities come his way. The finance minister’s job, even presuming that someone will offer it to him, is a political job. It should be earned through mass politics, not intellectual entitlement. It is the Rajya Sabha-types who brought down the Congress house in UPA-2. The Congress may have talent, but in a democracy, it needs public approval. (Modi has public approval but a stark absence of talent in his cabinet.)
Raghuram Rajan was curiously more critical of the Modi government when he was heading the RBI, at one point even using a Hitler analogy. Be that as it may, Raghuram Rajan as a mass phenomenon in India could have helped provide a positive counterpoint. His appeal may be limited to urban India, but urban India is the BJP’s core base. If Raghuram Rajan were to give up his squeamishness about mass political engagement, he could take away the IIT-IIM types from Modi. Overnight the rug would be pulled out from the under the BJP. Indeed, Raghuram Rajan could be the answer to “Aur hai kaun? (Who’s the alternative to Modi?)”
Also read: Modi’s cash plan better than farm loan waivers for short-term relief, says Raghuram Rajan
Raghuram Govind Rajan has the right to live his life the way he wants, continue being the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, chasing academic laurels, engaging with the Indian public through books and interviews. But this is not qualification enough to be the finance minister of India. His liberal fans and the opposition parties should be clear with him about this: come and earn it.
Manmohan Singh a non politician professional inducted as Finance Minister by Narasmiha Roa proved to be the best thing that happened to the Indian Economy. The precedent cannot be ignored.
The dire need now is for a qualified experienced person for lateral entry into the system.
Economics and Economic management has become a highly technical subject for generalists like a lawyer politician Jetly or Modi to grasp no matter how good their intentions may be.
One of the best analyses of RRR. Modi has seen many like him: articulate, well read but one who doesn’t want to dirty his hands in the dust & heat of India. We have seen many ‘brilliant’ Indian American surgeons doing a mess with Indian patients in India, to be rescued by their Indian trained & practising colleagues who don’t have a gift of gab: vernacular type. The fact that Modi allowed him to last his term shows formers magnanimity. A witless ( T N Ninan’s words ) Rahul Gandhi who hasn’t risen from ranks is doomed with such ‘talented’ advisors.
“Raghuram Rajan is no ordinary economist…” – RR is NOT an economist at all! – he has a PhD in Finance and NOT Economics – BIG DIFFERENCE. He loves to pull wool over foolish eyes and you journalists don’t know how to call a spade a spade.
RR is the biggest OPPORTUNIST India has seen after Sam Pitroda and so many others who ALL seem to make a beeline for the Scamgress party. I wonder why? These are the “educated shameless” – RR wilfully helped himself of the benefit of free IIT & IIM education and instead of thinking of selfless contribution, pretends to have the mindset & tendencies of an academic as he cools his heels in Chicago while fishing for plum high visibility positions of selfish benefit. All the true people of sacrifice walked away from the dying INC having achieved their goal of independence.
The Indian National Congress DIED with Gandhi as the nehru clan took over and turned into the EAT INDIA COMPANY – Nehru & Co. has been eating 10% cut ever since while creating the infamous 2% Hindu Rate of Growth under their thumbs. It is a FAMILY ENTERPRISE & not a political party. Anyone supporting it is either RETARDED or has a way to milk their own share of the CUT.
How come you missed to mention that the current Finance Minister is someone who was rejected by the people and was brought in through the backdoor by Modi? In fact all of Modi’s senior cabinet colleagues are those who have either lost elections or not faced people but came through easy route of Rajya Sabha. Modi scared of those who have base among the mass? So much for Modi’s so called ‘popular base’ (which is anyway merely 31%).
For the author… Talent in cabinet comes only when leftists come to power with their pseudo secular credential… Any guy not fitting the bill for author’s elitist approval is a Hindutva guy… And Hindutva is a bad bad word…
Mr Rajan with all his credentials of being a meticulous Fiscally prudent governor advocating for schemes like NYAY looks totally out of place.
I have captured my thought and questions to Mr RRR in the following blog post and I wish “The Print” brings this to his notice so that he answers
https://sivakumbala.blogspot.com/2019/04/ideological-affiliation-vs-intellectual.html
What is Shivam Vij’s problem if a capable man is made the finance minister. Vij comes across as a first class moron.
Rajan is a publicity seeking megalomaniac who adores the sound of his own voice. Shivam Vij is in love with him.
Whoever comes to power, India needs a great FM. Given the parlours state of the economy, that job will be almost as consequential as the PM’s. If the incumbent fails to get a second term, that will be almost entirely due to the fact that the economic team failed spectacularly. The question is not whether Dr Rajan has what it takes to occupy that football field sized room in North Block. 2. The Indian economy requires deep structural reforms to regain its mojo as a fast growing economy. If that does not happen, many more agitations like those of the Marathas and the Jats will take place, and they will not remain peaceful. The hero of 1991 was PM PVNR, not Dr Singh. As PM, Dr Singh did precious little reform for a decade, content to ride the rising seas in the first half, grapple with the fallout of 2008 in the second. 3. If Dr Rajan has lent his intellectual heft to NYAY, he is already failing his first big test. If loan waivers and income transfers are all that is on offer, Rajiv Kumar or even Surjit Bhalla would make fine FMs. It is for the next government to appreciate where a lost decade has brought a billion people, summon the courage to do what can no longer be put off. Once that bitter pill has been swallowed, Dr Rajan will do a good job. He will put the sex back in the Sensex.
… parlous. …
So what is your problem? From where ever we see, a person with sound knowledge and acumen like him is only going to benefit the economy of India. This looks like a poor attempt of right-wing idealogue to drag him into an unnecessary controversy where one can be easily avoided. It perhaps doesn’t help BJP’s cause that there are no good intellectuals and qualified people in BJP camp which was clearly reflected in all its appointments of all the important posts whether it was economic advisors or CEO of NEETI AAyog and other institutions and think thank. While elections can be won on rhetorics and ill-thought populist measures, the country doesn’t run well by such measures. Elections can often be stupid in appointing the right set of people which both camps realise that is why even Modi govt pushed for getting technocrats for appointments to important institutions. Raghuram Rajan doesn’t really need to be the Finance Minister, he can serve as a good economic advisor. Even if he is appointed a Finance Minister it is only great. For your information Arun Jaitely never fought any elections untill 2014 and yet he served on important posts in the Union cabinet. He lost the 2014 elections too to Captain Amarinder Singh of Congress. Him fighting the elections was pointless and only damaging to his reputation.
Hype is the creation of the media, if one carefully analysed the NPAs and the period of its accumulation, Mr Rajan needs to answer a lot ! Was he not the chief economic advisor prior to becoming RBI governor? The present governor has done much better in terms of easing liquidity buy swapping dollars to Indian currency and there is likely to be a further rate cut, yet no hype nor creation of crisis……