Letter: Theorist as an adviser

Apropos the Newsmaker on Kaushik Basu ("Right man, wrong job?" April 27), the current chief economic advisor could have taken a few lessons from his predecessors like Shankar Acharya. The latter kept aside all his insights on government mismanagement for his role as a columnist. Many will recall that seeking a comment on government policy during Acharya’s tenure used to be an exercise in futility.

It is ironic that despite Basu’s brilliance as an economic theorist, his stint as an economic advisor shall be remembered for his rather utopian views on curbing corruption and for his periodic statements on inflation coming down within six months. Of course, if inflation still hasn’t come down, we can always call it the “new normal”. The authorship of new chapters in the Economic Survey can, thus, be regarded as only an ephemeral small change. Clearly, this underlines the pitfalls of an economic theorist being given the mandate of policy-making and economic forecasting.

Ajoy K Das Kolkata