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Subramanian Swamy

Indian politician

Subramanian Swamy (born 15 September 1939) is an Indian politician, economist and statistician. Before joining politics, he was a professor of Mathematical Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is known for his Hindu nationalist views. Swamy was a member of the Planning Commission of India and was a Cabinet Minister in the Chandra Shekhar government. Between 1994 and 1996, Swamy was Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade under former Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. Swamy was a long-time member of the Janata Party, serving as its president until 2013 when he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He has written on foreign affairs of India dealing largely with China, Pakistan and Israel. He was nominated to Rajya Sabha on 26 April 2016.

Subramanian Swamy in 2019

Quotes

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1980s

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  • The best economy for India is when the Government functions more like an umpire in a football match rather than a participant, unfortunately the Government is the umpire, the goalkeeper and the centre forward...

"I'm in politics because I want to be the prime minister some day: Subramaniam Swamy" (1981)

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In an interview given to India Today, "I'm in politics because I want to be the prime minister some day: Subramaniam Swamy", India Today (March 1981)
  • I'm in politics because I want to be the prime minister some day. At 41, I'm old enough to run the country, though young enough to wait.
  • Raj Narain is a liability anywhere. When out of power, he behaves like a wrestler, which he is. It's martial art for its own sake, not for the sake of achieving an objective. And when in power, I don't trust this man at all. His conduct after he was thrown out of the Cabinet is all on record now. Like a worm, he crawled to Sanjay Gandhi to conspire against the prime minister. He was called a bar by Sanjay Gandhi, yet he smiled. It's unprecedented shamelessness.
  • I still have a lot of admiration for RSS. They're disciplined. They're prepared to sacrifice. They love their nation. But I'm not their slave. I didn't quit the Janata Party to join BJP when the RSS ordered each of its friends and followers to do so. It was an immoral act. I've never compromised on principles at RSS's behest.

"I am opposed to any electoral adjustments with the communists: Subramaniam Swamy" (1984)

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In an interview given to India Today, "I am opposed to any electoral adjustments with the communists: Subramaniam Swamy", (February 1984)
  • I will be able to consolidate the national democratic forces, largely because of my clear identification against the communists. I also have a better relationship with Morarji Desai and Chaudhary Charan Singh. I sincerely believe that unless these two leaders come together it is not possible to counter the Soviet-inspired Left Front in the country.
  • During the last few years, the party organisation has been neglected at all levels. There has been a complete neglect of party finances, front organisations and district level committees. I will concentrate on the organisation. Maybe because of my Jan Sangh background, I will do better. If I become the president, half the BJP will join the Janata.

"I would like to see Chandra Shekhar succeed Rajiv Gandhi: Subramamam Swamy" (1989)

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In an interview given to India Today, "I would like to see Chandra Shekhar succeed Rajiv Gandhi: Subramamam Swamy", (February 1989)
  • The people must know that V.P. Singh, the man leading the Opposition today, is untruthful, conspiratorial and lacks an ideology. His commitment to fight corruption is totally shallow. The people must know that Ramakrishna Hegde who claims to be Mr Clean is the biggest looter of the people of Karnataka: on every possible transaction of the Karnataka Government he has made a cut, either directly or through his relatives.
  • Sanjay Gandhi admired me for my guts. We got along very well. In the case of Rajiv Gandhi, I will be frank, I find the vibes right. I can't not like him. I will not deny I find his company pleasant. He is very, very well behaved with me. I have met him in his office five times in the last year, in connection with China.
  • I will accept money from anybody as long as it is Indian. As a good Brahmin it is my right to accept money. When I ask a businessman to give me money I speak as if I am demanding it. I collect money for the party. I have collected money for the Lok Dal(A), for the Janata Party elections and there is no secret about it. But my personal life has not been aggrandised by it.

1990s

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  • The operation Blue Star was supported by the BJP.

"Liberalism with drive in New Delhi, David Housego profiles leading free marketeer Subramanian Swamy" (1990)

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In an interview given to Financial Times, "Liberalism with drive in New Delhi, David Housego profiles leading free marketeer Subramanian Swamy", (27 December 1990)
  • V. P. Singh participated in the whole thing of Bofors. He and Arun Nehru were in cahoots. They misled the people. V. P. Singh held talks with Bofors and Swedish government officials in Stockholm on June 10 1985.
  • Last week's measures increasing raising import surcharges on a wide range of industrial products run counter to India's commitments to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to reduce tariffs. Once we have managed the IMF loan negotiations we will get that (approach) reversed.

2000s

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  • National politics has become devalued today because of casteism, communalism and regionalism. A few seats from one state is enough to launch you nationally.
  • I was later called by Morarji Desai who said I should not press the matter as it was in the national interest that the basement be kept sealed. The government has something to hide and the issue should be thoroughly investigated.
  • Once, at a get together, I called him my guru and explained the gurukul system of our rishis. He said: "Ah! That is what the US needs." Samuelson was a rishi in the way he treated his chosen students and saw them through difficulties. He was a great and gentle guru.

2010s

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  • Earlier, the scams were related to the defence deals, where things were difficult. Now, they have got into things within the country. And since there are lots of players, some of them spill the beans.
  • The recent announcement that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Mr. Karunanidhi will patronize screening of the mega budget movie on Saint Thomas and his fictitious missionary activities in the first century in Tamil Nadu, read with the Union Government's decision to cancel the allotment of forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board intended for creating facilities for housing and parking Hindu pilgrims, are a part of the pernicious and sinister attempt to put the Hindus under siege, about which I have been warning the nation for the last three years.
    • Dr. Subramanian Swamy, President of the Janata Party, 2010. , quoted in Ishwar Sharan. The Myth of Saint Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple. Third edition. 2010.
  • It is first of all factually correct that Muslims of India have DNA wise the same DNA as us. And therefore there is nothing wrong with them acknowledging that their ancestors are Hindus. If they say Hindus are not their ancestors, then who could be their ancestors? Now after all we created Pakistan for those Muslims who didn't consider themselves as ready to live with their Hindu brothers.
  • I feel that only those who have been oppressed by the society and have been forced to live a backward life should given reservations. If Muslims want to study, then should be given scholarships, good schools, But Muslims and Christians can't have reservation as they have ruled our country.
  • He (President Obama) should mind his own business. Two million Hindus who are working there (in the US) are not allowed to build their temples; they are not allowed to celebrate Diwali. He only gives lectures here. He says in America they have worked out a harmony. In America, the majority was brutalising the minority. In India, for 800 years, the Islamic minority was brutalising the majority Hindus.
  • A mosque is not a religious place. It is just a building. It can be demolished any time. If anyone disagrees with me on this, I am ready to have a debate on the issue. I got this information from people of Saudi Arabia.
  • The Indian State instead of the encouraging objective rendering of the history have encouraged few vested interests to hijack the historical narrative. This has resulted in present situation where the history, which is taught in our schools and colleges, is the British imperialist-sponsored one, with the intent to destroy our history...
    An accurate history should not only record the periods of glory but the moments of degeneration, of the missed opportunities, and of the failure to forge national unity at crucial junctures in time. It should draw lessons for the future generations from costly errors in the past...
    It is disturbing to read the amount of intellectual investment that has been made by the forces that are inimical to our country. These forces have penetrated into our democratic institutions to hollow them from inside.
    • Foreword by Subramanian Swamy in Atri, N., & Sagar, M. A. (2017). Brainwashed republic.

"Subramanian Swamy: This Nehru-Gandhi Family Is Totally Anti-National" (2015)

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Interview with Surajit Dasgupta of SwarajMag, Subramanian Swamy: This Nehru-Gandhi Family Is Totally Anti-National, (13 December 2015)

  • This family is totally anti-national as far as India is concerned. (but) I must tell you this much: Rajiv Gandhi and I were very, very close friends, extremely close friends. In Parliament when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister, he used to sit next to me along the aisle. After he lost office, he and I used to meet at 2 am everyday for two hours. So I know almost everything about the circumstances in which he got married, and what the relationship between the two (Rajiv and Sonia) was. I thought well of Rajiv. He was a great patriot, thought he would make a great Prime Minister if he came back for the second time around, and I supported him. Openly, on the floor of Parliament, I said, he didn’t get the Bofors money, Ottavio Quattrocchi (Sonia’s close friend) got it, and these were proved quite later, too late.
  • I cannot say I am anti-Nehru-Gandhi family per se, but I certainly was, from Day 1 anti-Nehru. Even when I was a school student, I took an intuitive dislike for Jawaharlal Nehru. There was no explanation. I just had it! The dislike was continuous as I learnt more and more about him. Therefore, to say that I have a pathological hatred for the Nehru-Gandhi family is not correct. Yes, I never liked Nehru, but that was pure policy. And, of course, I later on came to know that he gave up the offer of the UN Security Council, and then what he did on Kashmir, and the files I saw when I was one of the senior-most ministers in the Chandra Shekhar government. All this only bolstered that view.

2020s

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"India is already a Hindu Rashtra: What Subramanian Swamy had to say about Indian politics and Constitution" (2020)

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Interview with Kaveree Bamzai of The New Indian Express, "India is already a Hindu Rashtra: What Subramanian Swamy had to say about Indian politics and Constitution", (9 January 2020)
  • We're already a Hindu Rashtra. Right from the beginning, our Constitution mentioned faith, unlike any other constitution in the world. It bans cow slaughter. A Uniform Civil Code is also something that a Hindu Rashtra relies on.
  • Recently, the abrogation of Article 370, the Special Protection Group for Sonia Gandhi and the CAA were three issues on which I was asked to speak at the Parliament. Do you know that the first resolution of the Congress party was to provide citizenship to those Hindus and Sikhs facing religious persecution? Gandhi and Manmohan Singh endorsed this. This Bill has nothing to do with the Muslims of India.
  • The CAA is a commitment that we have to fulfil.
  • Pervez Musharraf is a good friend. I was once asked to inaugurate his office in Rawalpindi because his mother wanted a Brahmin to inaugurate it. He's truly integrated with our culture.
  • Income tax must be abolished. We must also increase the Fixed Deposit interest rates.
  • Sachin Pilot is a right man in wrong party.

"Subramanian Swamy On The UP Election, Yogi, And Modi" (2021)

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Interview with Betwa Sharma of India Ahead News, "Subramanian Swamy On The UP Election, Yogi, And Modi", (23 December 2021)
  • I’m an ordinary member of the BJP. If one were to say that the BJP is represented by Modi and Amit Shah, I have nothing to do with them. If BJP is essentially a party floated by the RSS, I’m a part of that.
  • I meet BJP MPs in the RSS shakhas. I sit with the BJP MPs (in Rajya Sabha), who are all extremely friendly. Yes, but it is a highly disciplined party. They don’t like to disobey decisions taken at the top. I think that is wrong in a democratic society. I’m very critical of the complete lack of knowledge of economics that is being foisted on us.
  • Modi is ungrateful, and no one can doubt my talent for some of the ministries and my knowledge of the subject. They did not even let me become an MP. Eventually, it was the RSS that had to move in and it took till 2016 before they could budge him.
  • He (Asaduddin Owaisi) polarises Hindus in our favour, but whether that is deliberate or not, I can’t say. I like Owaisi. He is my friend. If you see us meeting in Central Hall (Parliament), then you will feel like two buddies are meeting.
  • Varun Gandhi is a nice chap, hardworking, intelligent, studies a lot, writes books, and he has won the Lok Sabha election three times. The party should use him. You have to get out of this notion that the BJP is owned by Modi and Amit Shah.

Quotes about Subramanian Swamy

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  • I saw an upset-looking gentleman alongside me watching the fire. I asked why he was there. He said that all the notes and research for his current book, inside that building, was literally going up in smoke. That was Subramanian Swamy, then a young economics instructor.
  • I disagree with Swamy on most issues, but I always find his ideas interesting when it comes to matters of economics. You may ignore his Hindutva chants and his rants against the Gandhis– but listen carefully when he speaks on economics. Amit Mitra, my Presidency college classmate and West Bengal’s finance minister, once told me over dinner in Aveek Sarkar’s residence that of all the people who had taught him in Harvard, Swamy was by far the best. And Mitra, remember, studied under Manmohan Singh and Paul Samuelson.
  • I came across Subramanian Swamy as associate professor in Harvard in 1967. I was his student for one semester. He was younger than me. I was there with my wife and she is a good cook. I'm merely saying that he was fond of all good food and my wife would produce something which would vaguely satisfy him and so he would come over. We got along extremely well even when I finished my course with him, we were still very good friends. I couldn't afford a car, so we went together on weekend picnics. I'll say Swamy is a brilliant man, Swamy is an intelligent man. We used to be such good friends that when his daughter got married, I did a lot of work.
  • Academics and observers of the academy have for several weeks now been professing shock at what even one of the perpetrators has called unprecedented at Harvard – the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ striking of uncontroversial economics courses taught by now-controversial Indian politician Subramanian Swamy, without even inviting him to defend himself. But we should not be surprised. Punishment for uttering politically incorrect ideas, often with little regard for fair procedure, has plagued Harvard students, faculty members, and even, in the eyes of some, one now-former Harvard president over the past two decades. The disgraceful action taken against Professor Swamy is par for the course.
  • If Subramanian Swamy did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. He is a multifaceted intellectual dynamo. He has been elected to the Lok Sabha six times and Rajya Sabha three times. He earned a PhD from Harvard University standing first. He also taught at the university. During Emergency he became the Indian Scarlet Pimpernel. An arrest warrant had been issued against him. Regardless, he turned up at Parliament House, signed the Rajya Sabha attendance register and eloped.
  • In the present state of appalling gloom which has given birth to such wreckers of national unity as V.P. Singh and L.K. Advani, Swamy in comparison appears to be a man of patriotic commitment despite his provocative idiosvncracies.
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