20 Unknown Facts about Dr. Subramaniyam Swamy

                20 Unknown Facts about Dr. Subramaniyam Swamy

• Swamy was born in Mylapore, Chennai on Sept 15, 1939. His father, Sitaram Subramanian was at one-time director of the Central Statistical Institute.

• Swamy graduated from the prestigious Hindu College in B.A. (Hon.), finishing 3rd in the Delhi University.

• From Delhi, the seat of power, Swamy moved to Kolkata (then Calcutta) for PG studies. It was going to be his first battleground.

• The institute at that time was headed by PC Mahalanobis who happened to be a professional rival of Swamy’s father. So when Mahalanobis learned about Swamy, the latter began to get lower grades.

• Having demonstrated his ability for research, Hendrik S Houthakker, the American economist who was the referee for the paper published in Econometrica, recommended Swamy’s admission to Harvard.

• Swamy co-authored a paper on the theory of index numbers with Paul Samuelson. The paper was published in 1974.

• Swamy taught economics to students at the IIT.

                                 

• A phone call by Jan Sangh stalwart Nanaji Deshmukh picking Swamy to represent the party in the Rajya Sabha had him elected to parliament in 1974.

• The emergency (1975-77) made a political hero out of him. Swamy defied and evaded arrest warrants for the entire 19 month period.

• As the country’s commerce and law minister during Chandra Shekhar’s brief term as Prime Minister in 1990-91, Swamy laid the foundations of economic reforms in India by creating a blueprint.

• Being president of the Janta Party and an opposition leader, Swamy has the distinction of being handed out a cabinet rank by the ruling party. Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao in 1994 appointed Swamy as Chairman with Commission of Labor Standards and International Trade with a cabinet rank.

• After a long hibernation, Swamy writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2008 seeking permission to prosecute A Raja over illegal allotment of mobile spectrum bands unraveled the colossal 2G Scam.

• Subramanian Swamy played an important role in making it possible for people of Hindu faith in India to access the Kailash Mansarovar. To make it happen, he had met Deng Xiaoping China’s top guy of the time (April 1981).

• Political debut: Dr. Subramaniam Swamy and his wife Dr. Roxna Swamy were all set to relocate to the United States after being unceremoniously sacked from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; where he was serving as an academician.

• But, Nanaji Deshmukh, a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh ideologue persuaded him not to do so. Dr. Swamy was elected to Rajya Sabha in 1974 from Uttar Pradesh at the behest Nanaji Deshmukh

• Chinese: Dr. Swamy completed his doctorate at Harvard University on the Chinese economy. He was barely twenty-four years old. He is a fluent speaker of Mandarin and has visited China many times.

• Deng Xiaoping: He is a rare Indian leader; who held a long interview of Deng Xiaoping- the most powerful leader of China for decades.

• It was at his insistence Kailash Mansarovar Yatra was restarted in 1981, and the Chinese government allowed Indian pilgrims to undertake this sacred pilgrimage to Mount Kailash

• Trade negotiator: Perhaps, PV Narasimha Rao -then Indian Prime minister- chose Dr. Swamy -an opposition leader - as Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade (cabinet rank).

• Emissary: He had met Yaseer Arafat, then PLO leader as a special envoy of Rajiv Gandhi 

• According to reports; Dr. Swamy was sent as an unknown secret emissary by Union government to deal with Bhindrawale- a Sikh separatist leader- during Punjab insurgency. His views about him are quite controversial and interesting

• He also interacted with late Jayendra Saraswati - Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peeth-who had initiated an interfaith dialogue on Ram Temple issue.