In yet another jibe against outgoing RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy criticised the media for portraying Rajan as "some angel" and likening him to a "devil".
"In the Raghuram Rajan case, the whole media was motivated by forces outside this country to support him. They said the stock markets will collapse if he goes. The stock markets are not collapsing, it's gone up in fact. He was harming the India economy by raising interest rates and making it impossible for small and medium industries to take loans from the banks," Swamy said on Sunday.
He added, "So, it was as if I was some devil, and this man was some angel, who has come from abroad to save us."
Swamy has, on numerous occasions in the past, spoken bluntly against Rajan who had held several important positions in India and abroad.
Even the Finance Minister and PM Modi had taken exception when Swamy had called for Rajan’s sacking before his tenure ends in September over allegations of him being not ‘patriotic’ enough.
The Rajya Sabha BJP MP was speaking at a function organised in New Delhi by Virat Hindustan Sangam, to recall his political life during the Emergency era. Prime Minister Modi on June 27 had disapproved of Swamy’s attacks on the RBI Governor and some top finance ministry officials, saying they were “inappropriate”.
Swamy has been accusing Rajan over financial policy attracting widespread media attention. Rajan has already said that he will not seek a second term as the RBI Governor.
During his talk, Swamy also alleged that “Two attempts were made on his life while he was abroad during the Emergency, on the order of Sanjay Gandhi.”
However, later when asked what was the basis of his claim, he just said, “It was there in the newspapers of those days.”
The senior BJP leader also claimed that Emergency was not something that was imposed suddenly.