‘When good economists become politicians they lose..’ Ashwini Vaishnaw accuses Raghuram Rajan of ‘doing shadow-boxing’

Former RBI Governor and an acclaimed economist Raghuram Rajan always finds himself at the centre of controversy for his comments that don’t sink well with the centre government. Replying to one of his recent comments, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw called Rajan a politician and accused him of “doing shadow-boxing on somebody’s behalf”.

He also advised Raghuram Rajan of either sticking to economics or turn into a politician. Ashwini Vaishnaw’s remark came to a query on Raghuram Rajan’s reported statement on mobile manufacturing in India. Earlier, Raghuram Rajan had stated that India is not manufacturing mobile phones under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme but is only assembling them.

To this, Ashwini Vaishnaw explained that every country starts manufacturing electronics in a phased manner. He also assured that India will be achieving more than 30 per cent value addition in electronics manufacturing in the next two years.

“When good economists become politicians, they lose their economic sense. Raghuram Rajan has become a politician. Now, he should come out in open, fight elections, conduct elections and participate in political activities. Doing shadow-boxing is not something that is good. He is trying to do shadow-boxing on behalf of somebody else,” Vaishnaw asserted.

Calling Rajan a well-accompolished economist, Vaishnaw said, “This kind of shadow-boxing Raghuram Rajan is doing is not a fair thing. He is a very well-accomplished economist. I request him to stay as an economist or turn into a politician.”

The Minister also said that three companies will soon manufacture important mobile phone components for the world, he added. Explaining the phase-wise progress of manufacturing industry in a country, Vaishnaaw explained that every country that has started manufacturing electronics has followed a path of first bringing Completely Knocked-Down (CKD) components, Semi Knocked-Down (SKD) and assemble the product. He also added that the production of different components happens followed by the production of systems.

Talking about the complexity of global supply chain, he said that that there is no country which can claim to have a value addition of more than 40 per cent. He also said that India will attain 30 per cent plus value addition in less than two years.

Earlier, RBI governor Rajan had accompanied Congress leader Rahul Gandhi briefly in Rajasthan during the nationwide Bharat Jodo Yatra that streched from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.