Wednesday, May 25, 2016

If you prick us ,do we not bleed?

Observing the antics of our maverick new Member of Parliament Dr Subramanian Swamy, I am reminded of the Bards lines spoken by Shylock. Yes, prick Dr Swamy and you would identify the “politician” in him, with the negative traits that most commoners (like me) ascribe to our Indian polity.

For many years (in fact till very recently) I admired the Doctor for his gutsy approach to take on the high and mighty. I was impressed at his “ordinariness” as he stood in queues at Airport counters, his dress very Indian and modest. But in recent months his backing off from some of his more active pursuits, then the call to the Rajya Sabha and recently the potshots at the Governor of the RBI, and the dots all seem to connect!

What an ado about Mr. Raguramans comment! He is supposed to have responded to a question  on Indias’ relatively better economic performance as “...in the land of the blind the one eyed is King” This was enough for the baiters in the BJP to go after him as if he called the PM a one eyed man.

Did anybody else (like me), feel the comment was actually referring to the world? In a world of blind Finance Ministers our performance stands out because we were at least one eyed. It was a tacit admission of our countrys’ good work as well as a  recognition that much more could have been done. The fault for the shortfall, as Mr. Rajan would be the first to admit, is as much at RBIs door as it is with the Finance Ministry.


If our PM were to use Dr Subramanians’ attack to shift the Governor, I feel the nation loses a wise and mature counsel.

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