Flaunting wealth doesn't matter, say Debroy and Subramanian

Days after Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan warned bank defaulters against flaunting their wealth, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy on Sunday appeared to suggest that "flaunting" of riches should not be of much concern.

Debroy said assets and liabilities of an enterprise can be delinked from those of individuals, which is entirely a limited liability concept.

"I think wealth creation is good for society and wealth creation is good for everyone. You make tonnes of money and you go and flaunt it. It's none of my business," he told NDTV.

Both were asked to respond to Rajan's warning.

When the question was put to Subramanian, the chief economic advisor said: "I have no views on flaunting. We address owing the money problem, not flaunting... Flaunting, I agree with Bibek (Debroy)." To deal with the problem of debt, he said the country needs legislations like the bankruptcy law, which has been introduced in Parliament, and other mechanisms for "fairly apportioning the cost of decisions made in past" among all stakeholders. "This is a private matter," Subramanian said when asked if he was saying how people spend their money is their own business even if they are in debt.