'Rahul Gandhi couldn't even retain...': Ex-CEA blasts Congress leader, says he feels entitled to become PM

Former Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian on Sunday explained why he thinks Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is 'a poster child of entitlement'. He picked up from his last Twitter thread where he said "Gandhi is not intelligent" and had "no tangible ideas". This happened immediately after Gandhi spoke at Chatham House, a think tank in London.  

In a series of tweets on Sunday, Subramanian said except for Rahul Gandhi, every prominent politician like Arvind Kejriwal, Yogi Adityanath, Mamata Banerjee, K Chandrashekar Rao, Nitish Kumar, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Devendra Fadnavis, and Eknath Shinde have come up on their political merit.

Also read: 'Rahul Gandhi has no tangible ideas': Ex-CEA slams Congress leader for his take on India's foreign policy

These politicians, he said, had to work their way up. "One may agree or disagree with their politics; one may like or dislike them. But it’s undeniable that they all - except Rahul Gandhi - had to gain acceptability through their political merit," the former CEA said.

Subramanian, who served as the CEA from 2018 to 2021, said that in every field, skills are required to excel and those who achieve prominence without the help of godfathers must possess a high level of initial skill and work hard to hone that skill in order to succeed. He then praised the politicians he mentioned and said they have had to work hard to acquire political merit in order to gain acceptance.

Also read: 'SVB is flashy news, macro risks are grave': Top economist explains risk of higher interest rate

"Only Rahul Gandhi is an exception bcos of the family he is born in => Pure entitlement from birth, exactly opposite of merit," he said, adding that all other leaders like Kejriwal, Yogi, Sarma, Banerjee, and KCR have delivered success for their parties. "If they continually fail to deliver success, their position in the party will weaken. But no such accountability for @RahulGandhi," he added.

Gandhi entered the Parliament in 2004 after winning from Amethi, a Congress bastion for decades. He led the party's election campaign in 2014, but could not make any mark as the Congress was facing strong anti-incumbency. Gandhi became the party chief in 2017. In the 2019 general election, he again led the party's campaign but failed miserably, though the tally increased marginally from 44 to 52. He, however, lost his own seat, Amethi, to BJP's Smriti Irani.

Subramanian, in one of his tweets, mentioned his defeat and said Gandhi couldn't even retain the pocket borough "handed to him on a platter - Amethi". He said without even being able to retain his pocket borough and without delivering any electoral success, "Gandhi still feels entitled to become Prime Minister of India".

The former CEA said one may like or dislike the prominent politicians mentioned above but none of them was as unaccountable and immune to failure as Gandhi was. "The Dynasty & @INCIndia pursue complete anti-thesis of merit by continually promoting #PosterChildOfEntitlement," he said.
 
Last Thursday, Subramanian slammed Gandhi after he was found lost while spelling out how he and his party would like to conduct India's foreign policy. 

At Chatham House, Gandhi was asked whether he had anything new to introduce in India's foreign policy as former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had done with Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Gandhi started with "the principle of foreign policy" but then talked about what kind of society he would like to build and how he would use the "energy" which is being generated by the country's transition from rural to urban. A short clip of that video went viral, as not many were impressed with his ideas.

Patrick Brauckmann, the author of Space and Time, shared the video and said he never heard of a politician "as inarticulate" as Rahul Gandhi. "It’s actually embarrassing to hear him get lost in the simplest of questions," he said.  

Subramanian, too, commented on the video and said Gandhi does not have any tangible ideas despite being a legislator for 20 years. "He is not intelligent," he said. "He doesn’t work hard to make up for it. Ex, if he diligently attended Parliament, sat & listened, he would learn. #PosterChildOfEntitlement @INCIndia."