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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Narendra Modi’s bet on ‘Trump of India’ signals risks to his reform push
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Narendra Modi’s bet on ‘Trump of India’ signals risks to his reform push

Outspoken, nationalist and combative toward minorities including Muslims and gays, Subramanian Swamy has long been a lightning rod for controversy in India

While Subramanian Swamy is not in a position to set policy and many analysts view him as a colourful sideshow with no influence over Modi’s reform agenda, he sees himself as a ‘molder of public opinion’ with an alternative vision for India. Photo: HTPremium
While Subramanian Swamy is not in a position to set policy and many analysts view him as a colourful sideshow with no influence over Modi’s reform agenda, he sees himself as a ‘molder of public opinion’ with an alternative vision for India. Photo: HT

New Delhi: Don’t call Subramanian Swamy the “Trump of India."

“He is the Swamy of America," the 76-year-old Indian law maker, who formerly lectured at Harvard University, said of Donald Trump in an interview at Bloomberg’s New Delhi office. “I came much earlier than him."

Outspoken, nationalist and combative toward minorities including Muslims and gays, Swamy has long been a lightning rod for controversy in India. In 2011, Harvard cancelled lectures by Swamy after he wrote a column that proposed removing hundreds of mosques from Hindu temple sites as part of efforts to fight Islamic terrorism.

Now Swamy is back in the spotlight, adding a new risk for investors. In April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appointed Swamy to the upper house of parliament, giving him a national stage to trumpet corruption allegations against political opponents and push for rebuilding the Ram Temple—a flashpoint for deadly religious divisions that have defined politics in India since the nation’s independence in 1947.

Swamy said the BJP asked him to find a way to get the opposition Congress party, which is controlled by the Gandhi family, to stop blocking reforms in parliament. So he did what he does best: Go on the offensive.

“You have to attack them," Swamy said in the 20 May interview, where he was accompanied by four armed bodyguards. “Then to silence you, they will cooperate."

On the surface, it seemed to work. With two major legislative wins, including the overhaul of a colonial-era bankruptcy law, the parliamentary session that ended on 13 May was one of the most productive since Modi took office.

Yet Swamy’s rise in the BJP also adds uncertainty for investors. While he’s not currently in a position to set policy and many analysts view him as a colourful sideshow with no influence over Modi’s reform agenda, Swamy sees himself as a “molder of public opinion" with an alternative vision for India.

Hindu renaissance

He has already strayed into economic affairs with his push to oust central bank governor Raghuram Rajan, and in the interview he called for India to stop targeting inflation, abolish the income tax and shelve a proposed goods-and-services tax (GST).

“Subramanian Swamy is not somebody who can be easily controlled," said Arati Jerath, a New Delhi-based political analyst who has written about Indian politics for about four decades. “He is a very good weapon for Modi, but Modi has to use him very carefully. If he is not careful, certainly it will backfire on him."

Swamy has never had permanent friends or enemies during a nearly five-decade career in politics. He’s variably been both an enemy of the Gandhis and close enough to them to hold a cabinet-rank portfolio in a Congress-ruled government in 1994.

Swamy’s ties with the Hindu-dominant BJP have also wavered. While now he calls himself a “believer in a renaissance for Hinduism," in the 1990s he helped take down a BJP-led government and called it “a party of semi-literates."

‘Extreme rightist’

“He’s someone who was an extreme secularist and became an extreme rightist," said Mohan Guruswamy, a former finance ministry official and chairman at New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Alternatives. “Extreme factions of Hindu nationalists are backing him because of the ideas he espouses. But Modi is a different kettle of fish. There is no risk to the PM’s agenda of development."

Swamy’s history of shifting allegiances prompted Congress leaders to chide the BJP even as they scurried to defend the Gandhis against his attacks.

“Wait some time—this cannon will turn on you," Anand Sharma, a Congress leader, told fellow law makers on 4 May.

Corruption fight

Swamy rejects any notion of duplicity. He has gained legions of in recent years while exposing graft in the granting of telecom licenses and accusing Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi of a $300 million real-estate fraud involving a party-run newspaper. The pair has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, saying the cases are political.

“Tell me one thing I have said which is not consistent with party policy," Swamy said. “You think if the general feeling was against me I would be in Parliament today?"

Besides serving as a key BJP weapon against the Gandhis, Swamy said his other priority is building a temple marking the birthplace of the Hindu god Ram on the same site where religious zealots razed a 16th century mosque in 1992. He denied that the issue is timed to coincide with elections next year in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state.

“There is a history which has to be reversed, and that is the demolition of our temples," he said.

Trump support

Swamy’s views on Islam mirror those of Trump. He called Trump “good for America" for discussing Islamic radicalism, and said India, Israel and the US should have a common strategy to fight terrorism.

Although Swamy saw no major advantage for India if Trump becomes president, he said many Indians perceive main challenger Hillary Clinton as favouring rivals Pakistan and China.

“If it’s Clinton versus Trump, all Indians are voting for Trump," Swamy said.

Similar to Trump, Swamy fashions himself as an outsider, saying: “The Delhi elite doesn’t like me because I’m smarter than them." He also shares a distinct confidence in his own abilities.

“I know the rule, I know law, I know economics, I know parliament," Swamy said. “That’s an explosive combination." Bloomberg

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Published: 25 May 2016, 08:48 AM IST
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