New Delhi: Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) K.V. Subramanian on Friday, October 8, said he has decided to return to academia after the completion of his three-year term in the finance ministry.
The Union government had appointed Subramanian, a ISB Hyderabad professor, as the CEA in December 2018. He had succeeded Arvind Subramanian.
“Serving the nation has been an absolute privilege and I have wonderful support and encouragement,” he tweeted, along with a longer statement.
In the statement, Subramanian wrote that in his three decades of professional life he is “yet to encounter a more inspiring leader than the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modiji.”
In a long paragraph, Subramanian writes that he watched Modi take “tough decisions that do not fall prey to sub-optimal populism but tangibly improve citizens’ lives…”
He says that there has been “enormous change in India’s economic thinking post the pandemic” thanks to Modi’s decision making.
Subramanian’s time in office is marked by an enormous downswing in the economy, preceding but worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Surveys and studies have shown that the burden of this has been borne by workers, especially migrant workers, and while some markers appear to point to an improving picture, economists have called most indicators bad news.
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In his tweeted statement, Subramanian also lauds the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for being a “scholar at heart.”
Subramanian also mentions the importance of his colleagues and the value of picking a team, using cricket analogies.
In the last paragraph of his statement, Subramanian once again harkens back to Modi as a leader who, like Subramanian’s later father, “takes equal pride in his humble origins”.
He also makes a case for “meritocracy,” observing that this admiration for “the leader”, symbolises “an India where meritocracy is in and entitlement is out.” (Subramanian’s italicisation).
In India, the argument for “meritocracy” is often accompanied by casteist critiques of the reservation system.
Writing for The Wire on exclusionary practices in society and education, Chennai medical practitioner Yazhini P.M. had questioned:
“This makes one wonder, upon whose onus does the need for understanding constitutionally mandated affirmative action to ensure equity and equality for the historically oppressed majority in the Indian union lie? Is the onus upon the historically privileged minority who traditionally have access to education, network and patronage due to their exalted position in the Varna system? Or is it upon the socially oppressed to gather support from the privileged every single time they are denigrated for the use of a constitutional provision?”