In the last few months, Raghuram Rajan, former RBI governor, has turned a bitter critic of Modi government. And the most unusual thing about Rajan’s criticism is that he is not pointing out the flaws with economic policies but its social and political agenda. Except for the criticism of demonetization, most of the Rajan’s criticism has been focused on the social and political agenda of Modi government, which, of course, is not the domain expertise of the ace economist.
Recently, in an interview with Bloomberg TV, Rajan said that after the victory in 2019 election Modi government has “focussed more on fulfilling its political and social agenda rather than paying attention to the economic growth.”
Instead of criticizing the case in point in the economic policy of the government, Rajan is criticizing its social and political agenda. If a political party is elected to power, it is obvious for it to pursue its social and political agenda, but that does not mean that it is not focusing on the economic policies. Unable to find a particular flaw with the economic policy as the reasons behind slowdown are mostly global, the economists and intellectuals who do not agree with the social and political agenda of the government are repeating the line that the government is not focused on the economy. And Rajan is the latest among the bandwagon of intellectuals rooting this line.
Previously Rajan has also criticized Modi government for the policies in Kashmir, crackdown on leftist universities and Citizenship (amendment) act.
Economic policies need dispassionate analysis from academicians and intellectuals. A policy analyst must shed his/her ideological bias while reviewing a public policy. The criticism of any policy for the sake of maintaining an ideological position discredits the intellectual rigour of any policy analyst and the former governor of RBI, Raghuram Rajan seems to be doing exactly the same after he was relieved of his post. Raghuram Rajan returned to academia as the professor of finance at University of Chicago Booth School of Business and now he seems to have cleared his ideological position rather than being a dispassionate policy analyst.
Earlier Rajan claimed that the economic condition of Kashmir is very poor and its youth are frustrated. According to him, they follow a very peaceful version of Islam but the poor economic condition is among the reasons behind the alienation of the Kashmiri youth and terrorism in the region.
However, the claims of Raghuram Rajan fall flat against hard data. Overall the state of health, education and other socio-economic condition of Jammu & Kashmir is better than many other well-off states of the country. The more important fact is that much of the money for this expenditure is coming from the pocket of the central government. Jammu & Kashmir is one of the most pampered states of the country with 73.6 per cent of the state’s total revenue from central government while the state generates only 26 per cent of total revenue.
Raghuram Rajan is not an expert on Kashmir; nor has he spent a month in the valley. He is not even remotely aware of the conditions of Kashmir and the problems faced by its youth but he did not hold his horses in expressing his opinion about the valley.
Liberal icons like Raghuram Rajan should express the views only on the topics which they have researched considerably and not talk on the speculations, as it harms their credibility as economist and policy analyst.