68 Facts About Subramanian Swamy

Subramanian Swamy was born on 15 September 1939 and is an Indian politician, economist and statistician.

Subramanian Swamy was a long-time member of the Janata Party, serving as its president until 2013 when he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Subramanian Swamy has written on foreign affairs of India dealing largely with China, Pakistan and Israel.

Subramanian Swamy was nominated to Rajya Sabha on 26 April 2016 for a six-year term, ending on 24 April 2022.

Subramanian Swamy was born on 15 September 1939, in Mylapore, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, to a family which hailed originally from Madurai in Tamil Nadu in a Tamil Brahmin family.

Subramanian Swamy's father, Sitaraman Subramanian, was a bureaucrat and his mother, Padmavathi, was a homemaker.

Subramanian Swamy has one younger brother, Ram Subramanian, as well as two younger sisters.

Sitaraman Subramanian Swamy was an officer in the Indian Statistical Service who served as the director of the Central Statistical Institute in Delhi, and was a statistical adviser to the Government of India.

The family, which hailed from Madurai in Tamil Nadu, moved to New Delhi when Subramanian Swamy was only six months old.

Subramanian Swamy attended Hindu College, University of Delhi, from where he earned his bachelor's degree in Mathematics.

Subramanian Swamy then took his master's degree in Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.

Subramanian Swamy was later recommended by Hendrik S Houthakker and went to study at Harvard University on a full Rockefeller scholarship, where he received his PhD in Economics in 1965, with his thesis titled Economic Growth and Income Distribution in a Developing Nation.

Subramanian Swamy subsequently worked as a resident tutor at Lowell House at Harvard University.

Subramanian Swamy met Roxna Kapadia, whose father was member of Indian Civil Service and an Indian lady of Parsi ethnicity who was studying PhD in mathematics at Harvard University.

The elder daughter, Gitanjali Subramanian Swamy, is an entrepreneur and private equity professional.

In July 1965, immediately after obtaining his PhD in economics from Harvard, Subramanian Swamy joined the Department of Economics at the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences as an assistant professor.

Subramanian Swamy accepted the offer and even travelled to India to take up the position, but his appointment was cancelled at the last minute due to his views on India's economic policy and its nuclear policy.

Thereafter, Subramanian Swamy moved to the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi where he was a full Professor of Mathematical Economics there from 1969 to the early 1970s.

Subramanian Swamy was removed from the position by its board of governors in the early 1970s because of his disapproval of Indira Gandhi's poor economic policies but was legally reinstated in the late 1990s by the Supreme Court of India.

Subramanian Swamy continued in the position until 1991 when he resigned to become a cabinet minister.

Subramanian Swamy served on the Board of Governors of the IIT, Delhi and on the Council of IITs.

Subramanian Swamy taught economics courses at Harvard Summer School until 2011, when the Harvard faculty voted to eliminate Swamy's courses as a result of his "offensive" statements about Muslims.

Subramanian Swamy currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the SCMS Group of Institutions, which includes the SCMS Cochin School of Business in Kochi.

Subramanian Swamy's career started with his involvement in the Sarvodaya movement, which was an apolitical movement but which formed the foundation of the creation of Janata Party later.

Subramanian Swamy was later expelled from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

Subramanian Swamy was an elected Member of Lok sabha, the lowe house of Indian Parliament five times between 1974 and 1999.

In 1976, when the Emergency was still in force and an arrest warrant had been issued in his name, Subramanian Swamy came to Parliament to attend the session and managed to escape India after the session was adjourned.

In 1984, Subramanian Swamy stated his opinion that Janata Party should focus on organisational levels of the party.

Subramanian Swamy fought 1984 Lok Sabha election from Mumbai North East Lok Sabha constituency on Lok Dal ticket, but lost.

In May 1988, Lok Dal was merged with Janata Party with Ajit Singh as its president and Subramanian Swamy became general secretary of Janata Party.

On 27 December 1990, Financial Times published an interview of Subramanian Swamy by David Housego in which he claimed that the decision to raise import duties by his government is a "panic reaction".

In Parliament Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar claimed that Subramanian Swamy had denied what had been attributed to him in the article, but David Housego who wrote the story stood firmly by it.

One year later, on 29 March 1999, Subramanian Swamy organised a tea party to bring various opposition leaders together.

Subramanian Swamy continued to be president of the Janata Party till 2013.

On 11 August 2013, Subramanian Swamy officially joined the BJP when its president was Rajnath Singh.

In 1996, Subramanian Swamy had filed a criminal complaint against Jayalalithaa which led to her prosecution, conviction and sentencing to four years imprisonment by the trial court in 2014.

Subramanian Swamy released a letter alleging that former intelligence chief had asked DoT to tap the phone of many politicians and businessmen in Karnataka when Ramakrishna Hegde, the then Chief Minister, resigned in 1988.

In 1987, when Muslim youths were killed under police custody, Subramanian Swamy spoke against it and sat on a fast for more than a week in Jantar Mantar demanding the institution of an inquiry.

Subramanian Swamy further called on the Indian government to re-auction the 2G spectrum without the involvement of Communications Minister Kapil Sibal.

Subramanian Swamy raised doubts regarding her acquisition of Indian citizenship.

The Supreme Court said that Swamy had the locus standi to seek sanction from the Prime Minister for the prosecution of A Raja in the 2G case.

Subramanian Swamy's arguments were that he wrote to the PMO on 29 November 2008, but it was only on 19 March 2010 the PMO replied that the plea made by Subramanian Swamy was "premature" as investigation was being carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Subramanian Swamy demanded that an independent committee should be formed to check the security and safety of the Electronic Voting Machines to avoid any rigging or tampering.

Subramanian Swamy demanded that a printed receipt should be given to every voter after casting the vote.

On 1 November 2012 Subramanian Swamy alleged that both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have committed fraud and land grabbing to a tune of 20 billion by acquiring a public ltd company called Associated Journals Private Ltd through their owned private company, Young Indian which was formed on 23 November 2010.

Subramanian Swamy further added that Rahul Gandhi hid the facts in his affidavit while filing nomination for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Subramanian Swamy argued that it is illegal for any political party to lend the loan as per violation of Section 269T of Income Tax Act 1961.

Subramanian Swamy decided to approach the Supreme Court for de-recognising the Congress party, while the Election Commission ordered the probe on 17 November 2012.

Subramanian Swamy had filed a petition in the Supreme Court with priests of the Dikshitar sect challenging the decision of the Madras High Court on transferring the administration of the Nataraja temple to the then Tamil Nadu government in 2009.

Subramanian Swamy on referring to the provisions of Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, contended that Podu Dikshitars have right to administer the temple and argued on handing over the administration on mismanagement grounds of temple's wealth is violation under Article 26 of the Constitution of India.

Subramanian Swamy filed a petition to remove Kerala State government's control over Hindu temples by abolishing Devaswom.

On 22 February 2016, Subramanian Swamy filed a petition in the Supreme Court allowing construction of Rama temple at the disputed site where Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992, and expediting the adjudication related to order of the Allahabad High Court on 30 September 2010, petition was accepted on 26 February to be later heard by the court.

In February 2020, Subramanian Swamy filed a public interest litigation in Uttarakhand High Court against newly framed law to govern Char Dham and 51 other temples of the state.

Subramanian Swamy has worked towards normalising relations between China and India.

In various speeches and articles, Subramanian Swamy has expressed his admiration for, and solidarity with, the State of Israel and has credited its retaliatory capacity for its ability to survive as a nation in a hostile Arab environment.

Subramanian Swamy made pioneering efforts towards India's establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel.

Subramanian Swamy is a strong supporter of former US President Donald Trump, endorsing Trump's presidential candidacy in 2016 and comparing Trump to himself.

In September 2008, Subramanian Swamy stridently retorted against the contentions of some Indian columnists who voiced their opinions in favor of "peacefully" surrendering Kashmir to Pakistan.

Subramanian Swamy has been a staunch opponent of the armed rebel group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Subramanian Swamy urged the Indian government not to support the US led resolution condemning war crimes in the Sri Lankan Civil War, citing it as one-sided and not in the interest of India.

Subramanian Swamy moved the court and got the order restoring quota for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in colleges in the state.

Subramanian Swamy obtained Supreme Court Stay against the implementation of Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project.

Subramanian Swamy believes that it would hurt the sentiments of people who believe that this shallow land connecting between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka was built by Lord Rama.

Subramanian Swamy strongly opposes the implementation of SSCP citing that implementing this scheme will be a criminal offence under section 295 Indian Penal Code.

Subramanian Swamy wrote letters to Prime Minister of India in June 2009 asking him to stop the project and had informed the Supreme Court on 14 October 2015 that the government may not continue with the Sethusamudram Project.

Subramanian Swamy has made several statements in the past that reflect on his Hindu nationalist position.

Subramanian Swamy is the author of several books, research papers and journals.

Subramanian Swamy has co-authored with Paul Samuelson, a paper on the Theory of Index Numbers and another in the Royal Economic Society's Economic Journal.