Subramanian Swamy is no friend of 2G Raja

Thankfully for Indian journalists, Subramanian Swamy, who is in hot pursuit of former telecom minister A. Raja in the 2G spectrum scam, doesn’t often break into Mandarin — a language he is fluent in.

The 71- year- old Janata Party leader is at equal ease in Hindi, English and, of course, Tamil. And this has helped the Harvard economist survive many a storm ever since he entered the quicksand of Indian politics in 1975, when he rose as a diehard opponent of the Emergency.

Else, it was hard to visualise someone, who lacks the charisma of some of his contemporaries, winning parliamentary elections from places as diverse as Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

There aren’t many who would take on Swamy on his economics which he picked up in the company of giants like Simon Kuznets and Paul A. Samuelson. But still fewer can dare to take on the Tamil Brahmin on the political turf because he is deft at giving a real tough time to his opponents. It is said of the former law minister that if he speaks 10 sentences exposing a conspiracy or a scandal, only two could be true.

But that’s fair enough given that when Swamy hits, he hits really hard. A lot lies behind his eversmiling face too and most of it is unpredictable. At times, Swamy shines as a proponent of Hindutva and then excels as a bitter critic of Sonia Gandhi. If that were not enough, he has also been a vocal opponent of the LTTE and a crusader against the possible misuse of EVMs.

An authority on the comparative study of India and China, Swamy is said to have convinced Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to open the pilgrimage route to Kailash Mansarovar through Tibet.

Though married to Supreme Court advocate Roxna, Swamy has often chose to argue his cases without the help of lawyers. His two daughters — one of them a TV journalist — know that quite well! ’