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Critical Reply to Dr Sabhlok
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Dear Dr Sabhlok,
While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I have to say my words to you regarding
my work were in confidence.
I have to thus rectify the record now when I did not wish any record to be
created on the matter at this stage. I have had rather too many of my
thoughts stolen without acknowledgement in the past, and so am rather shy
of premature publicity.
>Just thought I'd share with everyone.
-- this really did need my permission.
>
>a) Prof. Subroto Roy is going great guns.
-- thank you. I have been for two decades, whenever I have not had to keep
fending off silly, stupid or jealous muggers on the street.
His work on re-writing the State
>finances in commercial methodology
-- no, it is not "commercial methodology"; it would be more accurate to use
the term "best practices"
(which he began during his stint in the
>World Bank
-- no, I have had two "stints" at the World Bank that I would count; both
very short but in the SAsia RVP's office..
many years ago
-- no, but this work had partial origins in a proposal I had made to the
World Bank in 1997 which got sabotaged by numerous people there and in Delhi;
) has been acccepted by Bimal Jalan, RBI governor,
-- no, it is NOT accurate to say this.
>and Secretaries of Finance of all the States of India were invited by RBI
>to listen to Prof.Roy on 29th April at Delhi.
-- not quite, in that it was in Mumbai, and I was invited thanks to the
Hon'ble Governor Jalan and the Hon'ble Deputy Governor Reddy to address all
the State Finance Seceraties and other senior finance officials on my work.
This was NOT shared by me EXCEPT in confidence, and I am afraid I have
nothing more to say on the matter for now.
>
>Some states including Meghalaya have shown interest in following his
>methods.
-- well, again, not quite, but I believe I have an invitation to Meghalaya.
If implemented, the common citizen will understand the state of
>affairs of a State's finances much better than ever before.
-- yes, that is the aim. Thanks for stating this but it has been painful
for me to have to correct the record like this precisely.
>I'd request Prof. Roy to feel free to share some of the salient features of
>his methods with us on IPI. We'll all benefit from this.
-- I appreciate this offer but my aim is not to benefit IPI as such but to
do my work as an Indian economist. Perhaps your suggestion might be
directed to the other Indian economists on this list as well.
He is clearly
>emerging as one of India's major economists
-- excuse me? I remind you that I, and just about no one else, authored
the 1991 economic reform for Rajiv Gandhi before his death; papers I had
principally authored went on the night of March 22 1991 to Mr. Narasimha
Rao, at a time when it would be safe to say that it was not being expected
that Mr. Rao would be PM or Dr Singh his FM. No history of the 1991 reform
is genuine until those facts emerge clearly, as they will perhaps in course
of time. (In the meantime, there has been a lot of bakwas, flattery and
hagiography, e.g. from one or more Oxford dons whom I did not invite to
Hawaii in 1989.)
Shri Gurcharan Das (who may be on this list?) was on TV this morning saying
no one had critiqued Nehru's economics -- he might like to look at my 1984
work which is now on the IPI site and the London Times lead editorial of
May 29 1984 on the day I published(when Indira was very much still in power
and the Berlin Wall was very much intact.) Shri Das, as an established
member of the Delhi intelligentsia, has evidently just published a book
with Alfred Knopff about himself -- will it contain any mention of the real
record of the Indian reform? Does it mention Shenoy let alone others? I
would be pleased if it did.
and the academic don
-- don? or doyen?
of Indian
>liberals. I repeat my request to him to send us the memos he submitted to
>Rajiv Gandhi in early 90s. Hiding this material from greater exposure is
>doing injustice
-- not really, all in due course. The Memos were as such published in the
middle pages of The Statesman July 31 1991, August 1, August 2 1991, after
Rajiv's death. The story of their impact has yet to be told.
to his excellent work (which I have read during my visit to
>IIT KGP).
-- my thanks for your appreciation.
>
Mathur, their
>Course Director,
-- could this be my classmate Samir Mathur, IAS, of the LSE Class of 1976?
With warm personal regards
Subroto Roy
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