Subramanian Swamy (born 15 September 1939 in Chennai, sometimes spelt Subramaniam Swamy) is presently the President of Janata Party. He is a politician and also a trained economist.
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[edit]Childhood and education
Dr.Subramanian Swamy was born in Mylapore, Chennai, India into a Hindu Brahmin family. His father originally is fromMadurai, Tamil Nadu and mother is from Tamil speaking family from Trichur, Kerala.
He attended Hindu College, University of Delhi from where he earned his Bachelor's degree. He studied his masters degree in statistics at the Indian Statistical Institute. He then went to study at Harvard University on a full Rockefeller scholarship. He did his doctoral research with two Nobel Laureates namely Simon Kuznets and Paul A Samuelson. Dr. Swamy has also jointly authored with Professor Samuelson a path breaking study on Index Number Theory. He was awarded a Ph.D. in Economics by Harvard University (Class of 1965).
For sometime, while completing his dissertation in 1963, he worked at the United Nations Secretariat in New York as an Assistant Economics Affairs Officer. He subsequently worked as a resident tutor at Lowell House at Harvard.
[edit]Academic career
In 1964, Swamy joined the faculty of economics at Harvard and from then on he has till date taught at the Department of Economics. He was an assistant professor at the Harvard Economics department where he later became an Associate professor in 1969. Though he now does not teach full time at Harvard; he however has been regularly teaching for a long time and also currently teaches economics courses in summer session at Harvard in the position of a full rank Professor.[1]
From 1969 to 1991, he was a Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He was removed from the position by its board of Governors in the early 1970s but was legally reinstated in the late 1980s by the Supreme Court of India. He continued in the position till 1991 when he resigned to become a cabinet minister. He served on the Board of Governors of the IIT, Delhi (1977–80), and on the Council of IITs (1980–82).
He is the chairman of School of Communication & Management Studies in Kerala, a premier business institute in India.
[edit]Comparative study
He is accounted by some to be an authority on the comparative study of India and China[2] and is also well-versed in the Mandarin Chinese (Hanyu) language.[3]
[edit]Political career
[edit]Role played during Indian Emergency
He first came into the spotlight for protesting against the emergency imposed in 1975. He went underground for a period of 6 months to avoid being arrested by police. Under the instruction of Jayaprakash Narayan, Swami escaped to US, so that he could mobilise overseas Indians and world media against the emergency.
[edit]Elections contested
He was one of the founding members of the Janata Party and was its president since 1990. He was elected Member of Parliament 5 times between 1974 and 1999. He has twice represented the city of Mumbai North East during 1977 and 1980, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the Parliament.
He was also a member of the Planning Commission between 1990 and 1991. Between 1994 and 1996, he held the position of Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade (equivalent to the rank of a cabinet minister) under the P. V. Narasimha Rao government. Dr. Swamy has been subject to severaldefamation cases. He is known to argue these cases himself without the agency of lawyers. In October 2004, he along with other members of the erstwhile Janata Partyestablished the Rashtriya Swabhiman Manch to oppose the policies of the ruling UPA.
[edit]Issues Held
[edit]China and India
He is known for his efforts in normalizing relations with China and India. In 1981, he persuaded Deng Xiaoping[4] to open the Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet to the Hindu pilgrimsfrom India.[5] He became the first Indian on the reopening to visit Kailash and Mansarovar in 1981. In 1990-1991, he was a minister in the Chandra Shekhar cabinet and was in charge of the ministries of Commerce and Law and Justice.
[edit]2G spectrum scam
On November, 2008, Subramanian Swamy wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and followed it up with four more letters seeking sanction to prosecute A. Raja in regards to 2G telecom spectrum political corruption scam.[6]
When the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh didn't take any decision,[7] Swamy went to Supreme Court. On 27 November 2010 Subramanian Swamy announced that he will file a criminal case against former union minister A. Raja[8] in the 2G Spectrum Scam before the Special Court for Corruption Cases in connection with the charges of irregularities in 2G spectrum allocation. He later said that under Section 319 of the Criminal Procedure Code, he would name the other “beneficiaries” in the scam. Until today, this scam has resulted to be the most historic and the biggest in the history of India.
The 2G spectrum scam involved officials in the government of India illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they would use to create 2G subscriptions for cell phones. According to a report submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General based on money collected from 2G licenses, the loss to the exchequer was 
176,379 crore (US$39.33 billion). The Supreme Court of India took Subramaniam Swamy's complaints on record [With Case type:Writ Petition (Civil),Case No:10, Year:2011].[9] The Comptroller and Auditor-General's report had put the presumptive loss to the government at Rs.1.75 lakh crore, but according to Dr. Swamy, the gratification shared would be only about Rs.60,000 crore. Kapil Sibal has however disputed that the Comptroller and Auditor General's presumptive loss estimate in the allocation of 2G spectrum. He said that the methodology used was "utterly erroneous" in pegging Rs 1.76 lakh crore (US$40 billion) as the notional loss while awarding airwaves for 2G phone services in 2008.
Subramanian Swamy adviced the Government of India that it should re-auction 2G spectrum after the Supreme Court issued notice to the union government and 11 firms in the alleged scam in the allocation of airwaves.[10]
[edit]Allegations against Sonia Gandhi
Swamy alleges that Sonia Gandhi's two sisters, Anushka and Nadia has received sixty percent of the kickbacks in 2G spectrum scam i.e. Rs.18,000 crores each.[11][12][13]
On 15 April 2011, he sought permission of the Prime Minister of India to prosecute National Advisory Council Chairperson Sonia Gandhi in a number of graft cases under Sections 11 & 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. . Listing a number of instances in connection with which Sonia Gandhi could be prosecuted, in a 206-page long petition, Dr Swamy sought Manmohan Singh’s permission on the basis of what he calls prima facie cases built against the NAC chief based on documentary evidence.[14]At a lecture on corruption given in 29 May 2011, he again repeated his allegation against Sonia Gandhi, saying, she has 1 lakh crore Rs. stashed abroad.[15]
[edit]Many Letters to PM
Swamy sends many letter to Prime Minister and one of those brought the 2G scam to surface as well. But most of his letters are not supported by proof. But he is not defensive about his allegations that are not supported by anything but his circumstantial judgements. He says: “I am writing to the prime minister, I am not holding a press conference. The PM has agencies available to him, they can investigate. My job is to bring things to his notice.” Also, “They say I have no proof. Rubbish! As if on other things, they always have proof.”[16]
[edit]Critical views on Tamil Nadu
He is well known for his critical views against the Government of TamilNadu and against the rationalist views of E.V.R Ramaswamy. He is a constant fighter for the revival of hindutva in Tamil Nadu.
[edit]All Caste Becomes Priest Act. Tamil Nadu, 2006
The bill in the Assembly of Tamil Nadu in 2006 laid the foundation for bringing the social reform of enabling every Hindu,and Dalits without any discrimination by caste, to become archakas in Hindu Temples.[17] The Governments plan was to demolish caste barriers in the State by training non-Brahmins to become archaka (priests) and offering them jobs in temples that come under the purview of the State Government.[18] The Government order has been challenged by the Adi Saiva Sivacharyargal Nala Sangam, Thennindia Thirukkoil Archagargal Paripalana Sabhai and other such hereditary priests’ organisations in the Supreme Court and secured a stay against the order. The case is pending in the court.Subramanya Swamy advocating against this act and instrumental in getting a stay from the court for implementation of Tamil Nadu all caste becomes Priest Act.[19][20]
[edit]LTTE issue
He is staunch detractor of LTTE.[21][22]
[edit]Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project
He obtained Supreme Court Stay against the implementation of Sethu Samuthiram Shipping Channel project(SSSCP). He believes that this shallow land connecting between Tamil Nadu and Srilanka was build by Rama approximately 1,26,000 years ago. He strongly oppose the implementation of SSSCP citing that implementating this scheme may affect the sentiments of Hinduism. He wrote letters to Prime Minister of India in June 2009 asking to stop this project.[23]
[edit]Personal Life
Dr. Swamy is married to Dr. Roxna Swamy, an advocate at the Supreme Court of India. He has two daughters, Gitanjali Swamy and Suhasini Haider who's a journalist atCNN-IBN.[24]
[edit]Books
Subramanian Swamy is the author of numerous books and writes regularly in various journals and newspapers. Some of his books are :-
- Hindutva And National Renaissance
- Rama Setu: Symbol Of National Unity
- Electronic Voting Machines : Unconstitutional And Tamperable
- Economic Growth in China and India (1989)
- The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi: unanswered questions and unasked queries (2000)
- Hindus Under Siege (2006)
- Corruption and Corporate Governance in India: Satyam, Spectrum, and Sundaram (2009)
- Economic Development and Reforms in India and China (2010)
- Sri Lanka In Crisis: India's Options
- Terrorism In India
- India'S Labour Standards And The Wto Framework
- Economic Reforms And Performance ; China And India In Comparative Perspective
- Building A New India: An Agenda For National Renaissance
- Trade And Industry In Japan: A Guide To Indian Entrepreneurs And Businessmen
- India's Economic Performance And Reforms: A Perspective For The New Millennium
- India's China Perspective
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