ArpitGarg's Weblog

A lot has been said on the Raghuram Rajan tenure extension. Swamy is a known critic of Rajan and has written to PM about it. Which is fine, as it his fundamental right to share his views. Few people have asked me my views about Rajan. I have stumbled a couple of times on this question. The reason being where do I begin to evaluate how good or bad he is.

The roles and duties of RBI Governor are not easy to understand for a common man. No disrespect to anyone, the whole concept of economy is a fake and unreal. It’s same as Sanskrit to common folk. Brahmins made Sanskrit a God Language, they are the only ones who know it and hence are self proclaimed people who can talk to God. Thereby making themselves important in society. Same is the mumbo jumbo of economy and finance. There is nothing natural and obvious about it. People like me who work in this field, spend time to by-heart the scriptures. We become just like Brahmins in this sense.

I can bet on my life that 99.9% of population doesn’t even know what RBI Governor does. How can we then evaluate his work? Just like 99.9% population doesn’t even know what the Pandit chanted during their wedding ceremony in Sanskrit.

So what do we do? Do we listen to the Brahmins of Finance how good or how bad Rajan is? One school of thought says that whatever Rajan or any RBI Governor does shows effect only in long term (5-10 years). Hence at this point you can’t evaluate on basis of results as we don’t have the results yet. You can only evaluate him on basis of results of what he has done 10 years ago. Some complex and self serving logic, isn’t it?

About this all saga, what I don’t like the most is, many a people says he is a rockstar, tall dark handsome types, speaks well, carry himself well, dignified, renowned. I mean what the hell! Why does all this matter? Another school of thought says Rajan has a global image. Not may Indians have it. And hence lot of NRI’s are supporting him. They get to say, “Rockstar Rajan is an Indian”. They get some pride in it and quench their bruised souls/self-respect in the foreign land. It is not coz they understand Rajan or his policies.

For me it’s too complex to be able to evaluate. Hence I agree with PM Modi on this. It is an administrative issue. It should not elicit media interest. When 99.9% of us don’t even understand Sanskrit, how can we evaluate Rajan. If there is no one better than Rajan, it is more scary. If we can’t find an Indian out of 130 cr people, who is better than Rajan, country is anyways going to hell.

So for all those who support Rajan, please do, but don’t say there is no one else better. It is an insult to other 130 cr people. For those who oppose Rajan, well you might know Sanskrit more than me.