The visit of Dr Raghuram Rajan, a former Governor of Reserve Bank of India, and a former Chief Economic Advisor, has generated a great deal of controversy. Known to be both scholarly and acerbic, Dr Rajan has challenged the current narrative of India landing in the company of developed countries in the next twenty-five years.

Also, he has questioned the economic growth trajectory charted by Government economists. No wonder, WhatsApp warriors are baying for his blood. During his governorship of RBI, Rajan became a controversial figure by reason of his tendency to speak out of turn. At the end of his tenure, Rajan revealed that going against tradition, the Government had not offered him a second term of Governorship.

Afterwards, at the time when demonetisation was under challenge in the Supreme Court, Rajan stated that the RBI was against demonetisation, and that he had warned the Government of its potential negative effects. To rub it in, Rajan said “One cannot in any way say it (demonetisation) has been an economic success” ~ a controversial statement, if there was one. Then, Rajan joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi, which put him squarely in the bête noir category for the present Government. Currently, Rajan is the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

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To his credit, even Rajan’s worst enemies do not question his scholarship. Rajan worked as the Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund between October 2003 to December 2006. At the age of forty, Rajan was the youngest person, and the first born outside the West, to be appointed to this position.

At the 2005 Annual Jackson Hole Conference, Rajan warned of the 2007-2008 economic meltdown ~ more than two years before it actually hit the US. Going against extant economic thinking, Rajan warned about the growing risks in the financial system, and suggested policies to counter them. Rajan was widely castigated for his........

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