In the movie, Troy , there is a sequence featuring King Agamemnon of Greece and his friend, Nestor; they are discussing the importance of having Achilles on their side in the war against the Trojans. Agamemnon says, “Achilles? He can’t be controlled. He’s as likely to fight us as the Trojans.” To which wise Nestor retorts: “We don’t need to control him, we need to unleash him.”

It would seem these words describe how the BJP uses Subramaniam Swamy. Like Achilles, Swamy is a rebel, a solo act with an impressive record of doggedly fighting the establishment. But it is good to have him fighting on your side. Because of his ability to bait the Gandhis, he serves an important purpose for the BJP — of keeping the Congress party on the edge in the Rajya Sabha despite their numerical majority.

But equally, he can turn against his own party, score a few self goals and cause lethal damage. Those to whom he was once close and then fell out with only to hunt or bring them down includes Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi and Jayalalithaa, among others. His party knows this and is, therefore, wary of chastising him even when he flirts with indiscipline. That partially explains the kid gloves treatment he’s been getting from senior brass in the wake of his destructive campaigns against RBI governor, Raghuram Rajan.

In the beginning, it seemed like this would die a natural death but the redoubtable Swamy has revived his campaign with another missive to the PM on May 26.  This is alarming and is making foreign investors uneasy — they are unused to such indecorous language employed against central bankers. Swamy is beginning to sound like the economic equivalent of extremist elements such as Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Yogi Adiyanath in the BJP. He needs to be reined in lest he cause more damage to the economy and detract from the many positives that have been achieved. The PM should intervene.

NS Vageesh Associate Editor

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