Subramanian Swamy is not one known to mince any words, and according to the BJP leader, the Indian economy is like an aircraft spiraling towards the earth before crashing.
In an opinion piece titled, ‘The way out of the economic tailspin’ in The Hindu, the BJP leader says that the Indian economy is headed for a crisis and a crash and the likely date was by early 2016 in his estimation.
Though the Modi government seems to have no contingency prescriptions ready, there is hope says Swamy and he goes on to describe a course correction he believes the government should adopt.
The article comes three days after Swamy wrote to the PM saying, "Based on my reading of the various indicators of Indian economy, I feel compelled to inform you that the economy is in its early phase of a tailspin. If curative measures are not taken, then a major crash is inevitable between the coming November and February, 2016."
Swamy’s prescriptions
Letting know his disdain for economists from the UPA regime, now employed by the NDA, Swamy says a Crisis Management Team (CMT) of politicians and economists who understand the dynamics of Indian society must be constituted.
Investigate and find out why household savings have dropped, why have exports and imports in commodity groups declined and why Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) of the public sector banks have risen so sharply. He also points out that actual investment in projects in Financial Year 2015-2016 was valued at Rs 42,749 crores, less than what was invested in 2005-06, during the UPA regime.
Swamy lists out more issues with the economy, and finally comes to the moot point. The man who he believes is behind the tailspin- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Raghuram Rajan.
“The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Raghuram Rajan, has single-handedly brought a huge slowdown to the Indian manufacturing sector and exports. As a doctor, he has believed that the best way to bring down the temperature of a patient (i.e., inflation) is to kill him (investment starvation).”
He goes on to say that the Prime Minister should replace him with someone like Dr. R Vaidyanathan, Professor of Finance in the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B).