Subramanian Swamy (in pic) yesterday sought Arvind Subramanian's sacking for allegedly taking anti-India stance when he was an IMF economist in Washington.
Highlights
- He had demanded sacking of Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian
- Finance Minister backed the economist: 'Government has full confidence'
- 'Will suspend my demand,' Mr Swamy later tweeted
BJP parliamentarian Subramanian Swamy's tweets this morning talked about "suspending" his demand for the sacking of Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, but what they telegraphed was far from a retreat.
A day after the government strongly defended Mr Subramanian - who is among those being discussed as the likely new chief of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) after Raghuram Rajan - Mr Swamy said he would "wait for events to prove the truth." A day ago, Mr Swamy posted a series of tweets targeting Mr Subramanian for being a green card holder and for earlier backing Washington in a row over intellectual property rights.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley firmly shot down the demand at a press conference, saying: "The government has full confidence in the Chief Economic Adviser. His advice to government from time to time has been of great value."
The government's quick clarification on the chief economist comes days after RBI chief Raghuram Rajan - who was also targeted by Mr Swamy - announced that he would not seek a second term after his stint ended in September.
Mr Rajan's decision to quit the central bank is attributed partly to the fact that the government made no strong condemnation of Mr Swamy's attacks on him.
Mr Swamy had accused Mr Rajan of deliberately hurting India's economy by refusing to drop interest rates - a move which many in the government criticized as preventing growth.
Mr Subramanian worked with Mr Rajan at the International Monetary Fund and replaced him as Chief Economic Advisor in 2014 when Mr Rajan moved to the RBI as governor.
Mr Swamy, a Harvard-educated economist, was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the BJP recently.