Dr. Subramanian Swamy has held the office of a Member of Parliament since 1974. With an illustrious political career of 47 years, Dr. Subramanian Swamy received a PhD. in Economics from Harvard University, after graduating in Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. Having received this kind of education, and having experienced the best and the worst levels of the Indian Economy, this man possesses more knowledge than any of us probably was there to acquire.
Dr. Subramanian Swamy has talked extensively about the Indian Economy, the economic policies implemented, his experience as the Minister of Commerce in the Parliament and a lot more.
Ans.) I have written about it in the Sunday Guardian quite extensively and the articles are available on my Twitter profile for reading. Today the problem, which I am sorry to say is that the government doesn’t recognise at all that there is a demand shortage and a relative supply excess. You go to an automobile showroom and you will notice the unsold cars as sales have been abysmal, barring the festive Diwali period. So we have to devise schemes by which the demand starts growing as that is the most important thing we must focus on and achieve this by putting money into peoples hands. Notice in America, Donald Trump put cheques into the bank account of everybody. They took the list from the tax authorities(Internal Revenue Service) and every month deposited a cheque with an amount being equal to their salary that they were earning at that time. That is what we should have done but what our government is doing is basically, they’re now taking away money from people. For example, the migrant workers have got nothing. They asked me about how are we going to give them money, I said to hand it over. They asked, where does the money come from and I told them to print notes. They then raised worries about inflation not realising that inflationary pressures arise only when there is an excess of demand. Putting money into people’s hands will increase the demand as people go to shops and then start buying. So, therefore I would say the biggest thing I would do as a policy measure is to get the economy back on track. Additionally, we must simplify the corporate taxes. This GST was a disaster. Too complicated. Too much paperwork. A farmer came to me before the pandemic pleading for help as he was unable to understand the technicalities of uploading documents on a computer.
So this is the lack of application of mind for people sitting in air-conditioned rooms. Despite my concerns, Prime Minister Modi had announced after being re-elected that he would double our GDP in five years and make it $5 trillion which is nearly impossible to achieve. Doubling our GDP would require a growth rate of 14.4% whilst we had achieved only 3.9% in the quarter before the lockdown after which the figures have fallen into deep negative territory. So what I’m suggesting is to empower the people as they are suffering, through measures such as maybe abolishing the personal income tax which also takes cash out of people’s hands. This is what the Americans did in the depression of 1930 and the subsequent war led to more money being put into people’s hands. This is one of the reasons why World War II is the one that made the US the fastest growing economy in the World at that time.
Ans.) Don’t form opinions based on Leftist Articles and Newspapers. Chinese data are to completely dismissed. It’s there in my books. The University of Chicago published my book in the 1975-76, where I took the Chinese data, shredded it and reshaped it.
For instance, in Agricultural Output, China included things that aren’t in agriculture. You tell me, is Fertiliser a part of agriculture? When they are weighing rice, they weigh it with theHusk but everywhere else in the world, they take the Husk out and weigh it amounting to a 20% difference. What price do they use – we have no idea. I would say that China’s economic model is finished. Its usefulness is over. They were essentially thriving on American support. The Americans appeased them because they thought the Chinese would help them fight the Soviet Union. The Chinese statistics is full of deficit in trades with East Asia because they’re always importing and there’s nothing to export but if you look at their trades with the West, it’s a huge surplus. Initially, Chinese labour was cheap and Americans were enamoured because they didn’t have such things(The Chinese)known as Labour Laws and you could make someone work for 16 hours and you have no one to come and arrest you so the Americans loved it and they set up companies. The Modernisation of China was because of these Americans who came in to get their Dollars. What happened is that, Chinese Labour has also become really expensive, there has been a rise in political problems so China needs to invent a new model. They don’t have domestic manufacturing capacity because everything was a joint venture.
Tomorrow if the Americans pull out of China, it’s the end for China. Secondly, they’ve got to produce and send it all along the Pacific Ocean and then Indian Ocean and then down south and west. The bulk has to be sent by ship. If tomorrow India could do the same thing, then there would be no China.
Yes, they have Military Power and they’ve militarised themselves extensively and they’ve not won a single war in their lives except one against Jawaharlal Nehru, tell me where have they won? Did they beat the Vietnamese? They got a thrashing from them. On the borders of Soviet Union by the Ussuri River, did they win there? Were they able to get the South China Sea islands beyond what they had before? No. It’s a complete myth that China is a military superpower. Give them a thrashing. They’ve come up with long supply lines into your territory. Bash them up. But no, we’ve got cold feet. Have you ever seen the Prime Minister criticise China by name? No. Why? Now they’re saying all these occupations took place during the UPA government. True but you had 18 meetings with Xi Jin Ping. Mr Modi met him not once but 18 times. Did you not discuss this? So this China concept is a hifi word in your mind. Please read my book. If India gets its act together in terms of the Economy, we’ll overtake China within the next 10 years.
Ans.) First of all, I graduated with a M.Stats from the Indian Statistical Institute in Baranagore, which is on the outskirts of Calcutta, and I know very well about Bengal’s rich past. But I don’t know what overcame the Bengalis who elected the Commies for 32 years, 1967 onwards. I often visit Bengal for conferences, meetings or to address the party meetings and gatherings. There has been development in Bengal during Mamata’s government. I’ve personally seen a lot of changes. But it’s a tough job to cover up for the disaster of the 32 years. Unfortunately, she is so much concerned about her seat and the minority leaving her and going to the communists. She defeated the CPIM and created a wave of votes after the Nandigram episode which mind you had a Muslim majority full of cultivators and has retained it quite well.
Frankly, I’m glad that the BJP has come up this well in Bengal because I think we need a two-party system in Bengal with the communists nowhere in the picture as Congress in itself is self- destructive in nature so you need not do much about them. We don’t have a voice in Delhi. The production of the Commies can’t even speak properly. Take Amartya Sen for instance. He can’t even converse properly. Has he even done anything for Bengal? He has settled abroad and as a migratory bird comes every winter to Calcutta for a few lectures. I personally feel none of the Economist from Bengal had a Nationalist outlook. They were all following the failed communist lines. Take for instance East Germany and West Germany. Both were equally destroyed after the World War II. West Germany took up democracy and the market economy and the East Germany took up the Soviet ideologies. All these economists would point fingers at me because I was an anti- communist, and would say that there’s no inflation, unemployment and Poverty in Soviet Russia. But now there’s no Soviet Union also. It’s broken up into smaller nations. So communism is a bane to the Bengal Economy. The Eastern Region was never backward! It has a glorious history. We wouldn’t have gotten our Independence for the key contributions of Bengal like Aurobindo, Tagore, Vivekananda, Bankim Chatterjee. People like Subhash Chandra Bose scared the Britishers even though they were victorious in the World War alongside the Americans. At that time despite him being declared dead, the British knew he was alive. Bengal isn’t neglected. You should demand it and fight it out. Fight it out in Delhi and just not by sitting in Bengal. I can theoretically say, but since it’s coming from my end, I don’t really know if they’d accept it or not. I think there’s a greater chance that Mamata Banerjee would follow my advice rather than the BJP leadership like (Narendra) Modi and (Amit) Shah because there’s a different problem inside the party and I am emerging as an alternative pole. You’ve got an Economist who’s also been a student of mine as the Finance Minister of West Bengal, Dr. Amit Mitra. It’s me who got him to go to America to get a Ph.D because he had come through the Anti-Naxal movement and he was in a mess when he was in the DSE. When I was associated with the IIT, I pushed for a fixed term of his associate professorship at the IIT, where he did very well. Of course, he’s isn’t in a position to tell Mamata (Banerjee), you cannot do this, I can tell her. I did this for a Shiv Temple in Howrah which was handed over to the Urban Development Ministry. She asked me to debate. I came down to Kolkata, met her in person and argued. She understood. She is a very understanding woman. The whole land was then taken over by the Urban Development Ministry except the temple which would be administered all by itself. So it depends on the understanding. I was with her when the Commies were up against her, breaking her skull and pouring all the virus upon her. I mean, we have to be grateful to her for uprooting the Communists. 32 years, it was tough and attainable. But of course, all these problems of hers to protect her electorate, should not make us forget that she’s saved Bengal from a disaster by removing the Communists. So today, I won’t go up to her and advise her unless she asks for it.
Ans.) This is a mischievous question. I’m critique. I’m shocked by the Economic policies being followed and implemented. I need to make it clear that I have suggested ways from 2015 shouting that the growth rate is slowly going down and we’ll face a tailspin and now we’ve almost crashed. Even today, none of them, neither Arun Jaitley nor the Prime Minister knows about Economics. Even I don’t know anything about Zoology and Biology, but as a politician, I should be knowing something about Zoology. But the fact is that the Prime Minister need not be an economist but should have a brain and should inspire people to be frank with him and that the people shouldn’t be afraid to speak to him. As far as my part, I’ve given it to him in writing what needs to be done as talking to him won’t be conclusive because the subject is too vast and technical. He doesn’t know the basic concepts like the differences between Current Prices and Constant Prices. He has to have confidence in someone who knows the Politics as well as the Economics of India.
In India, you need two kinds of reforms – 1. Which gives you a reward immediately. 2. It should be long term. Which is why I said abolish income tax. It’s just causing unnecessary harassment, corruption and paperwork and how much do you get. Where do you get the 4 Lakh Crores from? I made them auction Spectrum after the 2G spectrum that fetched them more than Rupees 4 Lakh Crores which can last forever. 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, 6G (G-Generations) which are frequencies of the air waves. The more the cycles, more is the G. So altered resources.
So, get alternatives and innovative ways which is long term in nature wiz you have a shortage of water, desalination of seawater. You have a shortage of power, convert thorium into nuclear fuel. And if you wanna work on the reduction of crude oil dependence from abroad, go for hydrogen fuel cells. And with Tesla coming into India, it’s electrified and not based on petrol. I would say that as I did in Chandrashekhar’s period, I can turn the economy around Tomorrow and help it grow at a rate of 10% per year, I had even advised Narsimha Rao to get in reforms but the only drawback of these reforms was that it was fruit-laden in the long term, and I told him that after you’re gone, we will all enjoy it but no one will give credits to you. And that’s exactly what is happening. Therefore these reforms need to come in immediately, like abolishing income tax. So there’s enough policy, but the problem for me is that apart from being an Economist I’m also a Politician. And there’s always a sense of fear that people think that I want to take their chairs.
But I don’t want to, because I believe in destiny so when the correct time comes, the chair will automatically come to me and I will not have to chase the chairs but they don’t believe that. They feel that I’m always plotting something. Probably Amit Mitra and others would get really upset by that move. If perhaps Mamata calls me and asks for help then yes, I’ll always help. Some of the steps should undertake tho would be like the first and most important step, Start Road building programs. Not only within the State borders but roads that connect Bengal to Delhi, Mumbai and other Metro cities. Connectivity should be enhanced. This raises employment opportunities and puts money in your hands. Now, where does the money come from? She should do deficit financing. States have a way of doing Deficit Financing. It’s not like states can’t do it.
Give relief effects and tell people to contribute willingly. Bengal is an ideal state for a fast Economy because it has so many brainy people there and people have a rich history and about 600-700 years ago, it was one of the most prosperous states in India. You have literature, history, a good economy with ample resources. You have the potential to develop an all India audience for your culture. However, after the elections, if you’d ask me to put in ways, I’d try doing it via the BJP or try to persuade Mamata and make it public.
Ans.) On a very rare occasion that I have come out in support of a Bill passed by our government, in fact, I supported it. I had openly opposed the GST Bill and I had laid down certain amendments in the bill which later on was enacted upon by the Modi government including the GSTN which was owned by all these Private Banks, and I told him to nationalise them and he eventually did it 2 years later after a lot of mess every day. I do support the Farm bill because it enables the farmers to have other options like he could have a direct contract, for instance, he has no money, so the contract enables him to produce what the contractor wants the Farmer to produce and the farmer can take the money for the produce and subtract whatever loan needs to be subtracted from that. So presently which is it only concentrated in parts of Punjab and Haryana. The reason being the well- developed system where the farmer would have a state determined MSP. The Centre can’t pass a bill on agricultural reforms. It passed a bill on the Essential Commodities Act. They played a trick and it’s not an agricultural reform. So it’s basically a trade reform. It said that you have been subjected to a hop and choice.
Either you sell to the middlemen who comes to buy and if he doesn’t have a proper policy, you go to the state government and you sell it to them at the MSP. The MSP is decided by the state government. MSP means Minimum Support Price which is cost plus like 5% more, but in Punjab, the MSP bar would be 20% higher so a nexus developed between the middle men and the state government and the state storehouses were overflowing with food which was all rotting but the Farmers were happy because he would get his Cost+15% more and he was guaranteed this scheme. So now these politicians and middlemen did, this trade bill opens up new markets with not just one Mandi, but Mandis all over. Punjab Mandis are such that even people from Western UP Come to those Mandis because they can get much more. So there was one clause that stated, that any party which wants to contract the production can enter the deal and there rumours spreading that only Ambani and Adani would do this but the Ambanis are mostly in the industrial sector and a little bit in the Food sector but in those days when Mrs Gandhi was there, they’d cry Birla-Tata and Tata is an insider and Birlas have vanished and now it’s Ambani-Adani. So these guys would give you a higher price and then start lowering it with no MSP. MSP of course is a State Act, it’s not there in the original Act. There was so much propaganda. They have been misleading. In a democracy, laws should be passed post extensive consultation keeping all parameters in mind. What happened in 1985,1990,2010 is irrelevant. You’re enacting it today, and passing it on the same day. The normal procedure in the Parliament is that post-induction, the Bill goes to the Standing Committee of the Parliament with respect to the Department and Ministry it concerns. Every Ministry has a Parliamentary Standing Committee. I’m in the Ministry of Health so likewise someone’s in Defence, someone is in Agriculture. And then it’s on how the experts are called and the bill is altered and modified and then the Final Bill comes into the house and then it’s passed and so the fact is, the Modi government didn’t do that as the Bill has already been considered and no need to be sent to the Standing Committee but you were not ready to meet the word of mouth propaganda, mostly done by Politicians and there was no one to counter it properly and one needs intense support to do that in that particular area. The BJP is particularly weak in Punjab and these Jats and Sikhs either donate their children to the military or get into farming and they’re a fierce lot. So now it’s become like an immovable force (Government) meets an irresistible force (Farmers) so something has to give in. So it will end up in an explosion. The Government doesn’t want to lose pace so they’re banking on the Supreme Court but the top court is smart enough to be like, this is not our arena. It’s the Constitution that is our expertise and not collective bargaining or arbitration. So that’s the situation. There will be bloodshed and hopefully, you don’t want that. So look for someone who can sweet talk them into understanding. I won’t tell you who. But yes, look for someone who can resolve this issue.
Ans.) When you write a production function, is a function of capital and labour and if you plot capital on the Y-Axis and Labour on the X-Axis, and the output and mapping along with the law of diminishing marginal returns, but over the last two centuries, it came on the industrial revolution that instead of going alongside the curve, you can jump curves.
And innovations makes it jump curves. So if you want to move to a higher growth rate, you need to get out of the Law of DMU by putting in more capital and labour and then the law of DMU operates. Therefore innovations.
So the industrial revolution, was mainly about innovations. Later the Americans bought in Electricity, Teleprinters, Jet Engines and now, The Internet. Every innovation takes you onto a higher curve with higher growth rates. During the industrial revolution the growth rate was only 3% and these days 10%,15% is attainable.
What India needs to do is to go for innovations that have not been done and our people are travelling abroad and doing all kinds of innovations. One Indian is the head of Microsoft now, and perhaps Amazon too. They’re all over the place but working for the American society and economy. I know people who are with me both socially and politically have 30-40 patents to their names and India has a very poor patent record because we don’t encourage research and development. It becomes a form of employment. I’m a Ph.D, I’m doing research and I’m a professor in economics who teaches from the book, so there’s no scope of development and no proper incentive. How much are we spending of our GDP on research and development, only 1.2% of the GDP whereas the United States is spending only 5%, China is spending 7%? And if you’re spending so much on R&D, maybe something might end up like a Wuhan or it can get this contagious. There are risks. You don’t condemn someone who’s failed. Try try. And for that, you make their life comfortable. For example, Tamil Nadu was asked by the Atomic Energy Commission when they set up their reactor, Kalpakkam on the coast of TN. The State government said that we cannot give you the desired amount of water because it’s too much quantity and it’s not possible. So the Atomic Research Commission set up desalination of seawater plants. The only place in the whole of Tamil Nadu, where the taps inside your house give you the perfectly fit for consumption water 24/7 in Kalpakkam which is because of desalination of seawater. The same thing the Ambanis did for their oil refineries in Jamnagar and the Jamnagar Municipality said we can’t give you water in such huge amounts so they desalinated sea water. Now Ambani’s are selling water to the Municipality.
60% of the worlds thorium is in India. What do the reactors need then? Free electricity.
So the moment you do innovations, you’ll see that your growth rates rising. Previously Amartya Sen and company would say that there’s a growth rate of Hindus at 3.5% per year because that’s huge, just like the population of Elephants, which I’ve mentioned in my book. In 1 year I turned it around with Chandrashekhar and Narsimha Rao, as a Union Minister and also was the chairman of Commission of Labour Standards and National Trade of the WTO and was also a friend of his so I did attend the cabinet meetings and I had a minister rank. We didn’t bring in any great innovations but we set a Market. No need to ask for permission and that was a form of innovation that boomed it from 3.5% to 8% per year from the Hindu Rate of growth to calling it the Narsimha Rao Rate of Growth. So today also, focus on innovations. If you find roadblocks, find alternative paths. Crude oil is a problem, substitute and use hydrogen fuels. Everything can be substituted but you need a team to work, motivate them and give them importance. If a rocket crash lands on the moon, we shouldn’t say chee chee at what have these guys done. We should be like do it again, do it again till you succeed. Encourage everyone. Secondly we Indians hate risks. Everyone would tell their kids to not risk it. Play safe. Playing safe is a National Disease. Risk means losing and failing but without failing you can’t learn. Obviously, god won’t come and guide You’ll have to pick it up by exploring. So Society and Families must also encourage people. If you can’t manage the tensions of failing, then read the Bhagwat Geeta. Lord Krishna says you only have the freedom of action and the result is mine to decide. Sometimes hard work won’t fetch you anything and sometimes doing nothing will fetch you lots. These are things that I’ll do. So you blame it on Krishna that I failed cause Krishna failed so you won’t have stress. So this risk taking is something we need to inculcate within the minds of our people and not do go get a steady job, with a fat salary, a huge dowry. That’s a bad life. You should be motivated to explore. You know, start your own company and not have a goal of being employed but have a goal of employing people. That’s the mentality we Indians need.
Ans.) Well you see, in our Tradition, they would say never impart knowledge to anyone who doesn’t have “Aastha”. Aastha means devotion, faith and respect. This the Finance Minister should ask me. I’m not gonna stand in the que and ask her, and that to someone who’s been educated with a Masters degree from JNU. You can’t do that. Therefore I can’t give advice to her but I write. Pick it up from that in the Sunday Guardian and then you can call her up.
And in terms of popularity, who’s the most popular after (Narendra) Modi? Please read the New Indian Express of Tamil Nadu. They’ve taken a poll. Therefore I can’t stand and que up in front of the lady or call her private secretary up for an appointment so I’ll not give any advice to the lady and neither will you see any reaction from my end on this Budget.
I’m not even sure if she’s making the Budget for 2021 or is it coming from the PMO and she’ll just sign the papers.
Ans.) Have you seen a list of countries and their amounts which they send into India? Which is the No.1 one today? Which country sends the most FDI in India? It’s Cayman Island. No.2 in Singapore and No.3 is Dubai. These are not huge industrial countries. This is your black money being re- routed back to you. With such investments at hand, why is your rupee and dollar rate rising? How much is it now? 73. It should not be more than 7. How do I say that, by the purchasing power parity rates. Supposing I go to Oberoi for a haircut and I also get a haircut in America. They’re both the same in quality but the American cut would be 25 times that of the Indian cut because they’re labour short and so they charge more. If you’re going to evaluate the outputs of India, USA and China, select one common currency and evaluate the same. Take a dollar and compare. India’s GDP suddenly rises and if you take the Chinese Yuan, it would suddenly fall because their prices are all rigged. There’s no market price there. So don’t go by these statistics. Our exports have been falling but our imports are falling at an alarming rate. So the Balance of Trade is positive. And the Finance Minister thinks that our economy is improving saying see that the Balance is Trade is positive. Little does she know it’s positive because of falling of Imports faster than the Exports. But both have fallen. This is the problem. You have to be a professional economist to know what the numbers mean. And my famous paper between Samuelson and myself on index numbers is all listed in there and it was so good, decisive and conclusive that Samuelson said stay here for 5 years more and write the thesis and you’ll bag the Nobel Prize but I wanted to live in India. I did get lots of kicks but in the end I survived. So I’ll say that please don’t believe all this that comes in the newspaper. Most of them are terrified and their backs are broken and they’ll never put out anything against the government.
I know this because they complained to me but what’s the use of complaining. Today the economy is on the verge of a collapse. I had predicted it in 2015, wrote articles after articles, particularly The Hindu, that the Indian Economy is on a tail spin. And now it’s about to crash and it’s a sad thing cause we have a war coming up with China, there’s unemployment and people are agitated. It’s a messy situation. It doesn’t require the thinking of one person but needs a team of people who are thinking just like the masses think and are willing to work. This can’t be done by the Technicians. It has to be people who are dealing with the public with the sufficient education. We have such people in the BJP but the Prime Minister is not taking any of them. He’s only filling his spots up with bureaucrats. We’ve seen that one Bureaucrat resigns from a position, joins in and becomes a Minister, of course that’s his right. The Prime Minister has the right to chose his Ministers but that’s the harsh reality. NPA crisis is a catch a few. It’s a very rarely used word. People have borrowed from banks against a mortgage. So liquidated the mortgage and recover it. When you’re complacent enough, all this Nirav Modi and all those who’ve ran away, they had enough assistance to leave India. Otherwise you should have issued a lockout notice for the airport and they’d not be allowed to go.But didn’t happen. So this nexus politics, bureaucracy and people who’ve played around with the banks money has taken it down. And every bank has RBI nominees on its board so how is the RBI not being prosecuted here. They give lectures everyday about NPA but the fact is that the RBI is equally liable in here. There’s no fear that if I defraud anybody and I’m sufficiently influential, people get angry with me when I talk about the Tata’s but I can tell you that if you give me a separate session, I can describe all the frauds he’s done right from 2G and I don’t mind saying this that he’s not from the bloodline of Tata, his father was an orphan and he’s his son. Those Tatas are all gone. I’m very Pro-Market so play by the rules and if you don’t, then you need strong ministers who won’t listen to you and have the Prime Minister say that I’ve de-centralised so I won’t interfere.
Ans.) Well, much has changed since I’ve entered the Field of Politics. I entered the Politics in the early 70s, around 51 years ago. Since 1985 caste and identity has largely dictated the issues regarding voting for candidates. This was the reason why a great scholar like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who was chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution of India, failed to win a Lok Sabha election. However, since then, with the change in time, this negative factor in politics, has been reduced.
This is because it has brought homogeneity in our issues. Of course, since Hindus make up about 82% of our electorate and if everyone stands United, there is no need for division on the based on caste for the elections. Despite this I have been elected thrice to the Lok Sabha and thrice to the Rajya Sabha. I have noticed that if you’re a learned man and are a part of a political party that can get over these caste divisions you can win almost anywhere. This is why I won the elections from Mumbai twice and only once from my native Tamil Nadu, which is Madurai. The anti south India view pushed by Shiv Sena was rife during that time but I still won because of my work during the time Indira Gandhi declared emergency.
I also really like the Indian electorate. The view during that period was that due to the lack of education and poverty, democracy was not possible. It was assumed that Indira Gandhi would win an overwhelming majority in the North and lose out on the South but the result was the opposite with Mrs. Gandhi losing the elections in her own constituency. This unbroken culture of ours has instilled democratic values in our people. These values are inherent in our culture and tradition.
Ans.) I’d be very frank. I enjoyed teaching but the only thing is that, Mrs. Indira Gandhi wouldn’t let me teach because I was against socialism and all these Amartya Sens and all ganged up against me so I had no place to go. I could have gone back to Harvard but I’d go whenever I got the time as a visiting professor and all. But I wanted to live in India. All said and done, socially you’re not respected in the United States. You’re a cog in the wheel and I didn’t wanna do that. I wanted to work and achieve something in India. I enjoyed teaching and I wouldn’t have ever left it. Mrs Gandhi herself said that I never knew you’d have stayed in India otherwise I wouldn’t have recommended your dismissal and you’d end up becoming such a headache for me. They thought I’d go back to the US. They called me an American Agent of the CIA, then later called me an Israeli Agent and now fake IT Cell fellows call me a Chinese Agent but anyone who’d read my book knows, I’m not. The only thing is I’m not anyone’s agent. This is a weakness in India, if you rationally can’t argue, you end up being called an agent or you’re joining the Congress soon and leaving the BJP and so on. As if I didn’t have the option of joining the Congress before coming to the BJP.I came here for ideological reasons that I’ve worked on. So all said and done, I’d have loved to be a professor or a teacher because I know that students are so bright and all they need is correct guidance and an opportunity to shine.
Students of mine from the IIT ended up with flying colours in the United States and some shined in India but of course they had a tougher time here. There was this guy Rajat Gupta, who became McKinsey and Goldman Sachs chief and then ended up in Prison, he was a very bright fellow who was personally recommended to Harvard. But now that I’ve lived in Politics, I like this profile better because I’ve always wanted to do stuff for the country.
My advice to bright Xaverians is that never be afraid of risks. But before taking risks, always consult. Consult with your parents or your wife if you’re married. Tell them what the consequences are and then ultimately do what your internal sense tells you. Don’t worry about defeat. Blame it on Krishna. He said that the end results are in my hands. It’s there in the Geeta. Please read it. If you fall, stand up strong and fight it out. I lost the elections, I stood up again and won it. People said and even the newspapers said that my career is all finished and I have to go back to America. Jealousy is a big factor in India. If you’re doing the correct thing, everyone will be jealous of you. It’s a wicked emotion. Never be jealous of anyone. Just say I want to do it. I will achieve it. We need a risk taking attitude and not looking for a steady job with increment every year and then building a house, retiring at the age of 60 and sitting and watching television. Go out there and chase your dreams and make your Family and Peers proud. God Bless you all.
The opinions expressed in this article are personal views of the interviewee.
~ Interview by Rahil Sethia and Saharsh Jindal
(Third year students pursuing B.COM(Hons) and ECO(Hons) at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata)