Arun Jaitley has a clear warning to Swamy: Enough is enough of this freak show

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s comments on Wednesday, shortly after BJP’s maverick leader Subramanian Swamy’s attack on Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian, is his way of telling the 76-year old leader that enough is enough. This was necessitated after Swamy, who got lucky in his first round all out, below the belt attack against Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan, trained his guns to the soft spoken, low profile technocrat Subramanian. Rajan, Swamy’s first target, had to eventually decide not to take up a second term that he formally conveyed to his staff last Saturday. In his latest round of attack, Swamy alleges that the CEA sided US pharma companies against Indian firms’ interests in 2013. Swamy also have a problem with Subramanian allegedly encouraging the Congress party to play spoilsport on the GST passage. [caption id=“attachment_2842746” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. AFP[/caption] But, unlike the Rajan episode, where Swamy had the silent support of Rajan dissenters within the BJP and in the government, there is no help coming from the party in his fresh tirade against Subramanian, who has kept a relatively low profile ever since he took up the CEA’s post. Unlike Rajan, Subramanian is a more acceptable figure both at North Block and Raisina Hill. Moreover, Subramanian has never uttered a word beyond his mandate. Jaitley’s displeasure on Swamy was abundantly clear in the statements he made in the Wednesday presser. There are three major takeaways from the Jaitley presser. First, the finance minister made it clear that the government has full confidence in the CEA and his advice has been of great value. Second, Jaitley has launched a counter attack on Swamy saying that there is a question of “to what extent politicians should attack those in government who cannot respond.” This is a direct warning to Swamy that don’t mess with good officials. Third, even in the Rajan case, the finance minister firmly denies suggestions that the government and BJP did not defend Rajan. Yet another jolt for Swamy! If Swamy doesn’t get Jaitley’s message even now, he is surely headed for a hand-to-hand combat with one of the major power centers in BJP’s central leadership. There is no scope for long range sniper shot anymore. If Swamy chooses to directly confront Jaitley, he will be staking his future within the party and in the Modi government. In fact, Swamy has already dragged Jaitley into the boxing ring on Wednesday morning when he worded his tweet as ‘Jaitley’s advisor’ and not the CEA. It is no secret that Swamy has his eyes on the finance minister’s berth and has long identified his nemesis in Jaitley. Rajan’s exit decision, though the government doesn’t want to acknowledge openly, has brought in some bad name to it in the public. This is mainly due to the manner in which Rajan, an internationally reputed economist and central banker, had to go. Swamy chose below the belt attacks on Rajan and baseless accusations on his interest rate policies instead of a dignified debate. The international media and investors too have taken note of this issue. Modi, who wants the world to be friendly with India, can’t overlook this fact. Swamy forgot that, under the new arrangement, inflation target itself is fixed jointly by the government and RBI. Government cannot blame the central bank for not cutting rates since it is up to the RBI to chart out a course to achieve the jointly decided inflation target. As for other allegations on Rajan’s personal integrity and ‘mentally not fully Indian’ status, no one in the government or outside seem to have taken Swamy seriously. Clearly, the government cannot afford to let Swamy go for Subramanian’s blood after Rajan with personal attacks. This is even more critical since Subramanian is also one of the top contenders for the RBI governor post after the exit of Rajan in September. If the government wants the CEA to take over as the new governor, it wouldn’t entertain baseless attacks on him that impact his image. Hence Jaitley has done well to contain yet another round of ‘Swamy Raj’ in the beginning itself before the BJP leader tightens the grip on his prey. As _Firstpost_ noted in an earlier article , there was no base for Swamy’s allegations on Subramanian on the GST issue since the CEA has taken a stance that largely aligns with BJP view on the issue of including the GST rate in the constitution. Swamy is indeed an asset to the BJP. The septuagenarian leader has indeed added to BJP’s firepower in Parliament with his nomination to the Upper House, especially in the battle against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in corruption cases such as the National Herald and AgustaWestland chopper scam. But, by choosing his enemies in technocrats of international repute, who have a clean record, Swamy is doing more harm to the BJP than good. It’s lot like a star forward running back to the team’s goal post in a crucial football match, score self-goals, and cheer the crowd every time he does so. The BJP leadership is well aware of the consequences of letting Swamy continue with his misguided attacks. The fact that Jaitley wasted no time to clarify on the Swamy-Subramanian issue at a formal press conference soon after the attack, testifies BJP’s determination to contain the Swamy problem this time. In the case of Rajan, both Jaitley and Modi had come with their responses too late. What one needs to wait and watch is whether Swamy gets the message and choose to go soft on his perceived ‘enemies’. The Modi government has reasons to worry since among the 27 names in Swamy’s so-called hit list are people the government wouldn’t want to mess with and draw unnecessary media attention. There are far more important things for the Modi government to do in its remaining term, rather than playing referee between Swamy and his imaginary opponents. But, given Swamy’s track record, it is very unlikely that he’ll give up the battle mode easily. At this stage, Swamy is a half-friend, half-enemy to the NDA government.