‘Majoritarianism Leading India Down A Dark Path’: Raghuram Rajan

Rajan was speaking at an event at Brown University.

Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan. Image used for representative purposes.

(Photo: Reuters)

Speaking on the economy, former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that “majoritarianism is taking India down a dark path”.

In an address at the OP Jindal Lecture at Brown University on 9 October, Rajan also said that India was experiencing a weakening of institutions.

Rajan stated that “factors such as ill-conceived demonetisation and poorly executed GST” were behind the economic slowdown in India, reported The Times Of India.
He further said that the state of the economy is in a “worrisome” situation, with slowing growth, a fiscal deficit that “conceals” a lot and rising levels of debt, reported The Print.

India is losing its economic way, in part because it is centralising power without a persuasive economic vision. We risk wasting the demographic dividend.

Raghuram Rajan at Brown University

Rajan also opined that the government’s economic policies were not sustainable and that its populist policies could take India the Latin America way.

Even while growth is slowing, the government is pushing its welfare programme, which gives it a lot of political capital among people. There is tremendous pressure on the government for a stimulus. But you cannot keep spending, something has got to give”, he said.

(WIth inputs from The Times Of India and The Print)