Subramanian Swamy
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Dr. Subramanian Swamy (b. 15 September 1939 at Madras into a Iyer brahmin family; sometimes spelt as Subramaniam Swamy) is a politician from India. He is also a trained economist.
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[edit] Association with Harvard
He was awarded a doctorate by Harvard University in 1965. Two of his advisors - though neither was his primary advisor - at the time were Simon Kuznets and Paul A. Samuelson. For a time, while completing his dissertation in 1963, he worked in the Economics cell of the UN Secretariat. He subsequently worked as a resident tutor at Lowell House, an undergraduate dormitory, from 1964 till he returned to India. Subsequently he has been a regular lecturer at the Harvard Summer School. He is accounted by some to be an authority on the comparative study of India and China. He is also well-versed in the Mandarin Chinese (Hanyu) language.
[edit] Association with IITs
He was Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi from 1969. He was removed from the position by its board of Governors in the early 1970's but was legally reinstated in the late 1980's 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).
[edit] Political career
He came into spotlight for protesting against the emergency imposed in 1975. He was one of the founding members of the Janata Party and is its president since 1990. He was elected member of parliament 5 times between 1974 and 1999. He is known for his efforts in normalizing relations with China and Israel. In 1981, he persuaded Deng Xiaoping to open the Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet to Hindu pilgrims from India. In 1990-1991, he was a minister in the Chandra Shekhar cabinet and was in charge of the ministries of Commerce and Law & Justice. 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 is widely accused of sensationalism and has been subject to several defamation cases. He is known to argue these cases himself without the agency of lawyers. He is also accused of several inconsistencies in his stand. He was perceived as instrumental in bringing the disproportionate assets case of J. Jayalalithaa into public notice in the 1990's but by 1997, he had become her political adviser and was instrumental in convincing her to withdraw support from the Vajpayee Government in 1999. He was however, soon dumped by Jayalalitha, after she lost the General Elections held in the same year. In October 2004, he along with other members of the erstwhile Janata Party established the Rashtriya Swabhiman Manch to oppose the policies of the ruling UPA.
