Caste is bad in politics, not in economics: Gurumurthy

RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy Tuesday said caste in politics is bad, but as far as economics is concerned, caste has produced entrepreneurship prosperity.

Launching a book 'Caste as Social Capital' authored by R Vaidyanathan, Gurumurthy said classless and casteless society is a beautiful imagination.

"There is complete alignment of caste and entrepreneurship in India... Caste which was derided something which is backward or bad, it worked so well in economics but it worked so badly in politics," he said.

"So, caste and politics is a bad companion. But, caste and economics produces prosperity," he added.

Gurumurthy, also a part-time director at the RBI, said that bahujans and other backward castes (OBCs) got politically empowered only through castes.

He also said that caste was a evolution of religious freedom.

Also speaking at the same event, Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister (EAC-PM) Chairman Bibek Debroy said, "What we should want is a situation where public policy is delinked from all collective identities like caste or even religion including reservations".