The foreign hand: Bibek Debroy tweets a limerick to counter 'weather vane'

Debroy's limerick comes after Rajiv Kumar criticised foreign influence in Indian policy making

Rajiv Kumar, the economist who will be replacing Arvind Panagariya as Niti Aayog vice-chairman wrote in his column in Hindi newspaper, Dainik Jagran that rumours floating in the national capital, often also called Lutyen's Delhi, suggest that more resignations will follow Panagariya's.

Kumar then went on to lament the influence that foreign education and thought had on Indian policy-making thanks to individuals who were educated abroad getting preference in the Indian set-up. He wrote that in these last few decades, experts who belonged to domestic academic spheres were considered inferior. In his column, he highlighted the Chinese system where, he wrote, the country always listened to experiences of multi-lateral foreign bodies like IMF and World Bank but formulated policies keeping in mind its ground realities.

He wrote that it has taken India a long time to get rid of the "Macaulayist mentality". Criticism of Macaulayists has been one of the main attacks on Indian policy-making in the country by the RSS since independence. 

After Kumar wrote this piece, people wondered which other foreign educated experts might be the next to go. Other prominent foreign educated, trained experts in the Modi government include Rajiv Kumar himself (D. Phil. in Economics from Oxford), CEA, Arvind Subramanian, RBI governor, Urjit Patel, Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy, RBI deputy governor, Viral Acharya and Principal Economic Adviser, Sanjeev Sanyal.

Raghuram Rajan was the first high-profile expert to leave India in the last one year. Members of the larger Sangh Parivar and BJP leaders like Subramanian Swamy had attacked Rajan's policies when he served as RBI Governor. He decided against taking an extension and opted to return to academia, like Panagariya has now.

Bibek Debroy, who will now be Rajiv Kumar's colleague at Niti Aayog tweeted a limerick today morning that seemed to mock Rajiv Kumar's aversion to foreign educated or trained experts. He tweeted: 

Others responded to Debroy's limerick with their own views in the same format and took the discussion on foreign influence further

Rajiv Kumar's criticism of foreign influence in Indian policy formulation comes after RSS-affiliates Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh decried the same in their criticism of Niti Aayog, Arvind Panagariya and Raghuram Rajan in the past.

In this war against Macaulayism, the final limerick may not have been tweeted, yet.