the recent uproar in the 2 G spectrum allocation that led to the Supreme Court pulling up the PM,the parliament being stalled for days and the icing on the cake A.Raja’s resignation is not the result of the yes-men CBI’s for a change unbiased investigation or of some brilliant sting by a daring newspaper,it was not even due to the opposition,it was the result of an interest litigation filed by one man-Dr.Subramaniam Swamy.
Who is this Swamy ? once I remember after the BJP government fell due to no confidence motion,the Tamil weekly magazine by its editor Cho.Ramaswamy carried a cartoon that read ‘Subramaniam Swamy umai maranden’ a pun on a devotion song that roughly translates into oh Swamy(also means God)!,I forgot you(resulting in the downfall).I am not going to delve deep into his biography,you can read it from – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subramanian_Swamy.What I am going to be doing is highlight some of the most important achievements of Swamy.
There are two things you need to know about him 1)he is a Genius and I mean it in every sense of the word 2) he is a crusader,a fighter and the kind who wins his battles mostly.
he is a renowned economist and an alumnus cum professor cum visiting professor of Harvard.He is the student of Nobel laureates Kuznets and Samuelson. His paper on index number theory with the latter is considered seminal and path breaking.he is deemed an authority in India-China relationships & economy and the Chinese economy in particular. He is fluent in Mandarin.he was a vocal anti-emergency advocate and escaped the hawk like late Gandhi by a story that’s almost legendary now.Its believed that Mrs Gandhi,baying for his blood asked the then US president Regan to hand him over. However this drew such a huge outcry from the academic community in US that Swamy,who was then teaching at Harvard garnered significant support from his colleagues. A petition signed by nobel laureates and other professors of the Ivy League was sent strongly condemning the emergency in India and Mrs Gandhi. Needless to say,Gandhi never lay her hands on him.
the TANSI case that nailed Jayalalitha was also a result of the PIL filed by him.Its historical in the sense that Jayalalitha till then had escaped every corruption case filed against her .When the case was filed and she was still in power she was quizzed on Swamy and she relied in her characteristic vain arrogance-Swamy has met his Waterloo in me’ to which he is said to have replied,’I will send her to the loo without water in prison,’which he did !
It’s also the result of his PIL that stopped the Ram Sethu from being destroyed due to the drilling for Sethu Samudram. He is a vocal critic of the LTTE and has repeatedly called for its ban.It was also the result of Swamy’s letter to the then President of India ,Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on the issue of reciprocity that led to the complications in Sonia Gandhi from ascending the PM’s chair.
His critics have pointed out his vitriolic campaign against Sonia Gandhi.his claims remain unproven and largely far-fetched and often personally slanderous against Sonia.However she has chosen to maintain silence on this issue. He is also a supporter of right-wing Hindu politics.Despite these shortcomings his achievements remain remarkable and his PILs have been eye openers.
Swamy is like the sage Narad often, generally good comes from the mess he creates !
Image is sourced from :http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ8DslnhEReqybv3wrUy2bHLzyumfhCIu4y8Jw67mpdmhU0IxH8Jg
With The Fungus Gone. 