Rao, Rao and Rajan.
Our collective obsession with the unknown
is sometimes funny, sometimes difficult to comprehend, but always interesting!
Let us start with science – perhaps the
best known equation amongst people with any idea of science is E=mC squared. Probe further into the understanding of the
same and, you would almost always draw a blank.
The proponent of the formula, Albert
Einstein, was and is, possibly the only rock star scientist the world has seen.
He was feted, felicitated, followed everywhere
he went. And the people who did that, possibly never understood why they were
worshipping him!
Was it his unique hairstyle? Was it his
unsolicited views of the world or was it the fact that he was a Jew who had
escaped the wrath of Nazi Germany, we will never know. The fact that he became
an American Citizen, the greatest marketing organization of the world, could
have been one reason too.
As a scientist, was his contribution the
most important one for mankind? No!
Scientists like Rontgen – the man who discovered/invented
X-Ray, Alexander Fleming – Penicillin and Louis Pasteur-
vaccination/pasteurization did far more for the society than Einstein did.
Millions of lives have been saved over
almost a century because of these scientists, but to large swathes of society,
these scientists were not great.
Monetary Policy, like the theory of
relativity, is hardly understood. But, because it is so poorly understood, the
people who deal with it, bring in a sense of awe.
Turn the clock back to 2013, a period when
India was going through an identity crisis. After 10 years at the helm, the UPA
government was facing the pressure of incumbency. It also did not help that, thanks to many corruption allegations, the government was
facing a crisis of credibility.
Petrol, Onions and the Dollar were in a
race to reach the Rs 100 mark.
In came Dr. Rajan, the brooding
intellectual with impeccable credentials, as the RBI Governor.
He was the voice of sanity, the glimmer of
hope in an otherwise despondent nation. (the reality is that the tears in the
population’s eyes are directly proportional to the Onion
prices).
Suddenly, the government had a new face of credibility, Dr. Rajan.
In his quest to bring down inflation, stop
the dollar from spiraling, Dr. Rajan, took quite a few steps, many of them
quite effective and successful.
It also helped the country that the crude
prices crashed to historic lows and that there was a new party at the helm of
affairs in India.
And,
India’s economy started looking more and more robust.
Because the monetary policy is too esoteric
for all of us, we ascribed the entire progress to one man Dr Rajan, making him
a rock star whose exit has, in our minds created a vacuum of caliber at the
top.
Contrast this with two Raos.
Mr. Duvvuri Subba Rao was Dr. Rajan’s
predecessor as the Governor. When he came in, in 2008, the world had been hit
by the biggest Financial crisis ever seen.
The stock markets across the world melted,
layoffs/ pinkslips became the norm across industries. Uncertainty replaced
confidence.
But, India remained relatively untouched.
While its economy did slow down, there was no crash like the ones seen in
Brazil, Russia or in parts of Europe.
The rebound was slow but sure. The man at
the helm of the RBI would definitely have done a stellar job, right?
Today, Mr. Subba Rao is living a relatively
unknown life in Singapore. His role in
the rebound would be a mere footnote in Indian economic history.
Turn the clock back 25 years.
Mr. PV Narasimha Rao became the Prime
Minister of India in 1991.
This was the period when India was still
recovering from the immensely tragic assassination of Mr. Rajeev Gandhi. Our
Balance of payments was at its vulnerable worst, our foreign exchange reserves
were not even enough to cover a few weeks of imports, doing business was
considered a sin, and innovation was looked down upon.
And, then Mr. Rao unleashed reforms that
have been able to transform India into an economic power.
Today, his mortal remains rest in an
obscure, unknown place in Hyderabad. And, his contribution both to his party
and to the nation, largely erased from collective memory.
A question – are we letting media decide
who is great and who is not? Are we getting swayed by marketing glitz in the
style versus substance debate?
Can we start looking at things more
objectively, and assimilate the good that the Roentgen’, Flemings and the Pasteur’ have done?
While we fete, felicitate and celebrate the
Rajans, can we not at least remember the Raos?
