S Gurumurthy plans to keep a keen watch from the RBI Board, but will his ideas find favour?

The appointment of S Gurumurthy as non-official director in the Reserve Bank of India is the first instance of a RSS ideologue making it to the high offices of Mint Street – also a signal to India’s financial capital that the Sangh brand of Swadeshi economics will have more than just a say in the way thing are done.

The custom made search has often been for the renowned desi economist, who had earned his name on the global stage. Raghuram Rajan and Arvind Subramanian fell in that category.

Gurumurthy, on the other hand, is swadeshi, who has championed a different sort of self-contained economics through his Swadeshi Jagran Manch.


He is a chartered accountant, who is considered brilliant within the grand Sangh parivar but not necessarily in sync with the reformer economists who have guided policy in post-reform India.

Gurumurthy has also hit the headlines of late for the wrong reasons. The Delhi High Court pulled him up in March for putting out “speculative” posts on Judge S Murilidhar through Twitter after he had granted interim relief to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media case. The court observed that being the editor of a magazine(Tughlaq) that has a wide readership in Tamil Nadu, Gurumurthy should have cared to check the facts. Not just that, but Gurumurthy also fell prey to the fake news that the new Rs. 2000 currency note had a chip embedded to it. As a big votary of the government’s demonetization drive, he urged all to spread the word.

Within the Sangh Parivar though, Gurumuthy is widely respected for his selflessness and commitment. He never accepted a post in the past despite persuasion from the likes of Bhaurao Deoras and LK Advani, says his long-time associate K Govindacharya.

According to BJP general secretary Murlidhar Rao, who has also known Gurumurthy closely, his greatest contribution has been to keep Swadeshi Jagaran Manch relevant through difficult times.

The family, community culture and tradition, according to Gurumurthy, have been the backbone of a healthy economy. He opposed modern economic policies "because they were formulated to confound the independent financial savings of the families. This is also why he has always assumed it was important to preserve the family run businesses in the country," a party leader said, recalling how Gurumurthy has often mediated in family battles of corporate houses.

Gurumurthy's personal integrity and austere living are quite talked off in Sangh circles.

"He would come to Delhi on a client's work, check into a big hotel and after finishing work would come to the pracharaks quarters and spend the night, eating our simple food and sleeping on the mat. Guruji (Golwalkar) had told us once to keep our offices and houses simple, minimally furnished that a poor or a lower middle class RSS pracharak wouldn't think twice before stepping into it. Gurumurthy took those words to heart. Even now he adheres to that," Govindacharya told ET.

He is known to be firm with his decisions. "He is a one-man army. To be honest, he is not a natural team player. But that said, not only do RSS leaders have a lot of respect for the work he does and his own personal integrity. Someone like former RSS chief Sudarshan was highly influenced by his thinking," another leader in the party said, adding, "He will be a good contrast to data crunchers on the RBI board because he is better connected with the reality."

But it also has to be noted that in the capacity of a non-official part-time director, Gurumurthy has no administrative responsibilities or decision making powers at the RBI but will keep a ‘watchful eye’ from the Board.

Gurumurthy's economics, according to his critics, is that it can limited to a working of an agraharam (a brahmin colony), a working model of a thrifty brahmin family in Tamil Nadu that cannot work for the entire country.

In his book, emphasis should be laid on savings, investment in gold and joint family business. Twenty years ago, he even had a survey of sorts done on how the Indian caste system allowed for development of garment cluster in Tirupur, leather in Kanpur and diamond in Surat.

“He encouraged us to go study how caste without discrimination also provides the fulcrum for communities to access social capital and trust, most important for businesses to grow. We have looked at around 600 cases that are documented and taught to management students," P Kanaga Sabapathi, professor, Sastra University in Tamil Nadu told ET.

This was best summed up by Govindacharya. "The Indian ecosystem is different. Here you don't just earn for yourself and eat. You earn and you feed a family. That is the whole basis of Gurumurthy's economics. He has been consistent at it."