Jaitley springs to Arvind Subramanian’s defence

The Government on Wednesday said it had full confidence in Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and rejected Swamy’s allegations against him. 

Former Janata Party president Swamy, who was nominated to the Rajya Sabha during the last Budget session, on Tuesday trained his guns at Arvind Subramanian. Swamy went to town demanding Subramanian’s removal in the same manner as he had demanded removal of Raguhram Rajan. 

The government in general and the PMO in particular were found to be not very forthcoming in support of Rajan, which possibly contributed to the Chicago University professor deciding not to seek a second term in office.

However, trying to avoid similar embarrassment, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said the Chief Economic Adviser had provided valuable insight from time to time to the government.  He also said politicians while making comments against officers should follow discipline as they cannot respond because of constraint under which they work. 

The Rajya Sabha MP had demanded sacking of the Chief Economic Adviser alleging that Subramanian convinced Congress to have a rigid stand on GST Bill. He also accused Arvind Subramanian of not being fully Indian. 

On Swamy’s  earlier attack against the RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, Jaitley on Tuesday denied the accusation that government and BJP did not defend him in the face of unwarranted criticisms.

However, critics claim that in the absence of strong support from the government when 

Subramanium Swamy made uncharitable remarks, Rajan preferred to make a graceful exit. Rajan’s term ends on September 3 and a hunt is already on to find a successor with Arvind Subramanian leading the race.

Meanwhile, the Union Finance Minister told reporters after cabinet meeting on Wednesday that “Government has full confidence in CEA Arvind Subramanian, he has provided valuable insights from time to time.”

“To what extent should we attack those, the discipline and constraint of whose offices prevent them from responding; it has happened more than once,” Jaitley added referring to Rajan’s case. 

Jaitley clarified that he had refuted Swamy’s shrill campaign against Rajan in which he had demanded that he should be refused an extension at the RBI because he was “mentally not fully Indian”.

“I had categorically made my statement even the in earlier case that these was his personal opinion, party doesn’t endorse them. The party president, Amit Shah also had specifically stated that party doesn’t agree with that comment,” said Jaitley referring to Swamy’s remarks against Raghuram Rajan.

After Rajan’s exit, Swamy, as if having smelt blood, has now started targeting the Finance Ministry adviser. The 76-year-old politician tweeted, “Sack him!!!”. The vicious campaign also triggered speculation that Swamy’s real target was Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is Subramanian’s boss. Swamy also claimed that Arvind Subramanian had backed Washington in a row over intellectual property rights before joining the government.