Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy has decided to suspend his demand to have Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian sacked, after the government came out in support of the economist, reported the Times of India. The Centre had said it had faith in Arvind Subramanian's "valuable insights". Swamy took on Twitter on Thursday and said, "If BJP Union govt says that we know all about AS but still he is an asset, then I will suspend my demand and wait for events to prove truth."
Swamy's tweets came a day after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, "Government has full confidence in CEA. His advice to government from time to time has been of great value." On Wednesday, Swamy questioned the economist's stand on Intellectual Property Rights. Swamy has also said that Subramanian is responsible for the Congress's stand on the Goods And Service Tax Bill.
In a testimony filed to the US Congress, the Narendra Modi-appointed economist had said that the US should approach the World Trade Organisation against India's stringent pharmaceutical norms under IPR. According to him, Delhi needs to tweak its patent laws, which are often frivolous and lead to widespread malpractice.
However, Subramanian's stand regarding the issue dates back to March 2013, over a year before he was appointed to the top job by the NDA government. "The virtue of using WTO's dispute settlement was that it would be diplomatically and politically less confrontational than unilateral and bilateral actions," he said, justifying his views.
Swamy decided to attack Subramanian only days after he severely criticised Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, who on June 18 announced that he will not take a second term after his tenure ends on September 4.
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