A Touch Of Senility, Dr. Swamy ?

The first time I saw Dr. Subramanian Swamy was at the Chennai Airport when his security detail tried to push me away. I turned around and asked them if they were protecting God or a human being ? Dr. Swamy just smiled at some vague point far away and neither asked them to stop pushing people around nor apologised to me or anyone else.

Then I read up about Dr. Swamy when Modiji became the Prime Minister in 2014. He seemed to have done a lot for Hindu causes like the Ram Setu and Ram Janma Bhoomi. I also read about his interactions with Mahaperiyava, the walking God of Kanchi Matham. Since Mahaperiyava had given him darshan, I tried to see things from his point of view…

I became a fan for some time too and wanted Dr. Swamy to be awarded the Bharat Ratna even. I read his biography by his wife Roxna Swamy and agreed with him on many things – Book Review – Evolving with Subramanian Swamy.

The Mask Fell …

Then suddenly he was out of the Rajya Sabha and slowly the mask came off … everything he wrote or said about different ministers in the Modi Govt. was so petty and caustic that he seemed to have lost it totally. Suddenly, I realised that he is so full of himself and criticises anyone and everyone who has a different point of view. I don’t know the source of his hatred for Dr. Jaishankar, our rockstar MEA. Just see the kind of language he used for Dr. Jaishankar –

That’s the sign of a frustrated, self-centred, arrogant, Mr. Know-it-all. I have no problem with someone being all that, but as a public figure and as someone who says he loves India, he certainly needs to be better behaved.

The icing on the cake is his latest article in The (Non)Hindu newspaper.

And here are some facts taken from the tweet by @BefittingFacts, who is quoting Morgan Stanley.

India's Decade of Transformation:

Corporate Debt as % of GDP
2015- 65%
2023- 50%

Foreign Direct Investment:
2013- $22 B
2023- $46B

Mutual Fund Investment:
2013- $100 B
2023- $500 B

Electrified Railways:
2013- 4,100 kms
2023- 28,100 kms

Corporate Tax Rate:
2013- 33.9%
2023- 22%

RBI CPI Inflation:
2013- 10%
2022- 4.7%

Direct Benefit Transfer:
2013- $0.89 B
2023- $32 B

Highways:
2014- 25,700 kms
2023- 53,700 kms

Digital Transaction as % of GDP
2016- 4.4%
2023- 76.1%

Source: Morgan Stanley Report.

But Nallasopara ka Economist says Modi ne India ki economy ko barbad kar diya.

If all of the above can be achieved without any “structure” then PM Modi must be a “mayavi” or an extra terrestrial being.

PM Modi cannot influence all these numbers nor can he get Morgan Stanley to just blow sunshine India’s way. We are seeing the progress India is making under PM Modi’s Government and it’s remarkable. It’s actually making a difference to every strata of society. Read this article – UN praises India’s ‘remarkable’ poverty reduction. Also watch this WION news video where it clearly shows wealth creation and that too in the villages !!

I can understand Dr. Swamy’s frustration – PM Modi is doing well, without any help from him. His mentioning the “golden” period of former PM Sri Narasimha Rao and his then Finance Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh is because he apparently scripted the liberalization of the economy. Maybe true because he is certainly a brilliant economist, but if he is a patriot why bother about credit ? Let it be.

Contextual Greatness

I have always believed that context changes everything. Some people are great given a certain context. There are very few people who are great in every context – there are only two human beings I know besides my beloved Bhagwan Krishna, who are great whatever the context – Master of Masters Osho and Kanchi Mahaperiyava.

Dr. Swamy seems to suffer from contextual greatness. He is a brilliant economist, no doubt, but his frustration on not being in the limelight is affecting his behaviour and negatively. I just hope for his sake, that his twilight years are at least equal to his heydays. It would be a real sad situation if he flames out. All the good work that he has done and all the respect he has garnered will be gone in an instant.

But such is Karma …