Subramanian Swamy bigraphy, stories - Indian politician

Subramanian Swamy : biography

September 15, 1939 –

Subramanian Swamy (sometimes spelt Subramaniam Swamy; born 15 September 1939) is an Indian academician, politician, and economist. He is the President of the Janata Party.

Swamy has previously served as member of the Planning Commission of India and Cabinet Minister of India. He has written extensively on foreign affairs of India dealing largely with China, Pakistan and Israel. He is also a published author.

Swamy is a strong supporter of the free market economy and is responsible for creating the blueprint that opened India's economy to the world in 1991 . Earlier in November 1978, Swamy was member of the Group of Eminent persons called to Geneva to prepare a report of the United Nations (UNCTAD) on Economic Co-operation between Developing countries (ECDC). Swamy also simplified trade procedures and formulated a new export strategy which became the forerunner of trade reform adopted subsequently. In 1994, Swamy was appointed as Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade by then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. This was perhaps for the first time that an Opposition Party member was given a Cabinet rank post by the ruling party. He also presently serves as chairman of the Board of Governors of the SCMS Group of Educational Institutions in Kerala.

Swamy is an ardent proponent of the Hindutva philosophy outside the Sangh Parivar. He has, however, been criticised by some politicians and sections of the media for his alleged "anti-minority" stance. In 2011, Swamy wrote a controversial article "How to wipe out Islamic Terror" that advocated declaring India a "Hindu Rashtra in which non-Hindus can vote only if they proudly acknowledge that their ancestors were Hindu". This article later resulted in Harvard choosing to discontinue their association with him .

Views on Kashmir

In September 2008, Dr. Swamy stridently retorted against the contentions of some Indian columnists who voiced their opinions in favour of "peacefully" surrendering Kashmir to Pakistan. He said,

"I would say that the silent suffering majority of India wants none of this. The 'Kashmir issue,' in fact, can no more be solved by dialogue either with the Pakistanis or the Hurriyat, leave alone the constitutional impossibility of allowing it to secede. […]Kashmir, in fact, is now our defining identity. It is a touchstone for our resolve to preserve our national integrity. The population of that State may be majority Muslim but the land and its history is predominantly Hindu. For our commitment to the survival of the ancient civilisation of India and the composite culture that secularists talk of, we have not only to win that coming inevitable war but also resolve never to part with Kashmir. […]
Pakistanis often cite the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir to argue for a plebiscite. This obfuscates the fact of accession of the State to India. The legality of the Instrument of Accession signed in favour of India by the then Maharaja of J&K, Hari Singh, on October 26, 1947 has to prevail anyway. "

Court activism

For 15 years, he has been filing petitions in courts starting with the case against Jayalalitha in 1996.

Hashimpura massacre

In 1987, when Muslim youths were killed under police custody, Swamy spoke against it and sat on a fast for more than a week in Jantar Mantar demanding the institution of an inquiry. After 25 years he started pursuing the case once again in court.

Survivors and victims of the massacre have alleged that Swamy is using it to score political points. Rebecca John, counsel for the Hashimpura complainants, told Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Siddhartha who is conducting the trial in the case, that "there is no other motive than politics behind Swamy's plea for further investigation and it would only further delay the trial".Questioning Swamy's locus to seek further investigation, John contended, "If we could see any other motive than politics, we would have stood behind him (Swamy). But we were the ones who fought for the victims, who went to the apex court and got the case transferred here. Where was he for 25 years?"