Last evening I stepped out of home wearing my face-mask braving Omicron in the streets of Chennai to go to the above meeting to listen to the economics guru and dashingly photogenic ex-RBI Governor. I wanted to get a feel of his ideas —- new, fresh and profound if any he had to offer —- after such a long time since he left India in 2017/18 to go back to Chicago University USA.
Besides I’m an annual subscription-fee paying member of the Chennai International Centre — CIC. And that entitles me I believe to not only attend its events but also ask at least one question there during the invariably enjoyable Q&A session that follows at the end of the welcome speeches and the keynote address of the guest-speaker.
A friend of mine knowing I had attended the CIC meeting asked me this morning “What happened with the “economics genius” Rajan?”. How was the meeting ?
And my answer to him was this below which I share with one and all through this blogpost.
All the bigwigs and glittering grey-Emeritus of Chennai were all there seated in the audience … ExRBI governor C. Rangarajan , Ex NSA MK Narayan, NRam of the Hindu and NRavi and a few more corporate honchos ….
The high and mighty of Chennai asked all the questions … All jejune and platitudinous … but extremely pertinent and perfunctory as befitting their tall stature as outstanding intellectuals … but then all rather boring too…
NRam was the very first to get up during the Q&A to ask Dr Rajan what he thought about “growing Majoritarianism” finding tacit but growing support these days from even the Supreme Court of India … And whether it would impede India’s economic progress?
Dr. Rajan, of course, promptly and unequivocally agreed with his ideological and networking fellow-mate … and mumbled all the right and proper things about how Majoritarianism will be very bad for country’s Economics and even worse for the country … blah , blah , blah ….
I actually had half an urge to get up from my seat in the front row and amble across to N Ram in the middle to ask whether he thought in the last 75 years Minoritarianism as practised by the politicians he supported all along had really worked any great economic miracles for the country?!
But then I thought better than to give in to my “in your face impulses” … lest I got thrown out of the auditorium as a heckler and a raucous upstart unfit to be amongst the elite gathering there at CIC …
So , very politely… prim and politically proper… I decided to ask a very neutral, sterile question to Dr.Rajan …
“Dr Rajan, In the context of Constitutionalism and Economic future of India , and given that many in this country believe that Consitutionalism means more and more federal devolution of power from the Union Govt. to the State governments , do you think the unified tax system under GST is a success or failure or something in between?”
I asked the question because the present Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu government is going around town and the country screaming at every forum that the GST has damaged the federal structure and relations between Centre and States through inequitous and arbitrary distribution of tax-revenues.
To my question Dr Rajan smiled his beautiful oracular smile … hummed and hawed …
It was obvious … to me at least in the audience … that he didn’t want to comment too much by way of an answer since it would have been awkward for him to acknowledge firstly any great success for GST which is an initiative of the Modi Government (which he has always been saying, “poorly implemented” it) … and secondly, it would have been equally insensitive of him to say that the federalist order under the Constitution was not all that greatly being impeded as far as India’s economy was concerned … As we all know to be matter of fact, the GST is not a failure … and the federal structure too has not greatly suffered any weakening at all anywhere in the country …
But then how can Dr Rajan say all that when he is receiving a handsome Advisory fee (in hard currency too perhaps) from the TN government for services he renders as Economic Consultant in the Economic Advisory Council instituted earlier this year by the CM of Tamil Nadu ?
So, with the savoire -faire that is his wont, Dr. Rajan just played it safe and answered saying “there are many little improvements still needed for GST” and as for Federalism in India … there will always be a debate about whether it is too little or too much …and how much little more can be got for that much so less already obtained … Or something very close to that oracular, vague and fishy-sounding effect …
It was indeed a good pleasant evening though ….
It felt quite good to break out from the dreary monotony of self-imposed, semi-quarantine conditions under which I, like most other senior citizens in Chennai, have confined myself to in these times of variant-pandemics at home …. to go out into the outdoors and try and get some fresh air … And if lucky, to also perhaps get a whiff of some bright new ideas and insights while just listening to sterling minds like the likes of Dr Raghuram Rajan’s.
As I walked out of the auditorium, one thing came out clearly to me though judging by his answer to my question : He is out and out an economist, no doubt… And so he knows about either Taxationism or Constitutionalism, no more or no less as you and I do.
Sudarshan Madabushi