Distinguished economists do not have access to PM and FM, says Chidambaram

Neither do the leaders of the present government seem to seek the views of such economists, he says

Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday said that a key problem with the functioning of the present Union government is that there are not enough distinguished economists with free access to the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister..

Releasing the book ‘Forks In The Road - My Days at RBI and Beyond’ written by former Reserve Bank of India Governor C. Rangarajan here, he said neither did the leaders of the present government seem to seek the views of such economists.

He contrasted this with the United Progressive Alliance government led by Manmohan Singh during which, he said, there were at least half-a-dozen such economists in various important roles in Delhi, apart from Mr. Singh himself being a great economist. “At any given time, we had a constellation of star economists in Delhi,” he said.

He said that eminent economists like Mr. Rangarajan frequently met the Prime Minister in the past. Only a free access and an interaction seeking their advice would keep the economy ticking, he said.

Mr. Chidambaram said the growth rate achieved during the successive UPA governments between 2004-05 to 2013-14 was far higher than the growth achieved since 2014-15.

Arguing that all the poverty estimates had been optimistic and were not revealing the deep and entrenched nature of poverty in the country, he said that the stability of monetary system and price stability, for which RBI was responsible, were important for reducing poverty. Highlighting the need for high growth rate to reduce poverty, he said that it could be achieved with sound policy.

He stressed on the need for the RBI and the government to work closely and not see each other as rivals. Lauding Mr. Rangarajan for many of the historic reforms, Mr. Chidambaram said the most important reform that won the RBI a great degree of autonomy was the abolition of the automatic monetisation of the fiscal deficit, which was done when he was the Finance Minister.