Multilateral agencies judging third world on false reports: Govt advisor

A senior government advisor has accused World Bank and other multilateral agencies and rating agencies in assessing third world countries like India based on factually incorrect reports being peddled by vested interest private agencies to suit their politically coloured views.

Sanjeev Sanyal, a member in the PM's economic advisory council, while addressing the ongoing global summit of accountants here on Sunday evening also said it's high time that the World Bank and rating agencies question such reports because the parameters on which they have been prepared are bizarre most of the time and thus are far from reality.

Most of the western reports, be it political or economic, are prepared by a narrow group of individuals who pedal their politically mired opinions as facts, Sanyal said, adding and when such reports are about India I can say that they are very far from reality.

 

I'd request the World Bank to look into such politically biased reports being flaunted as factual because the bank and rating agencies also base their reports on such bizarre reports, he said.

Unfortunately, we have been paying a heavy price because of such reports in the form of our low sovereign rating, which has been BBB- for decades now, he noted.

Look at the governance/democracy/freedom reports western agencies like Freedom House, he said, these private agencies have always been using their resources to serve their narrow political agendas and ideologies. But it's not fair on anyone to use such data/indicators because they are brought out by an extremely narrow group of individuals/institutions.

And I would say that this is a new form of colonisation because they present their opinions as facts even though they have real impacts on countries related to those reports. And when it comes to us (India), such reports have already impacted our sovereign ratings."

And I want the World Bank to really question these as some of them are utterly absurd, he said.

Such monopoly of western analysis of governance narratives needs to be questioned too, he said and illustrated the example of Freedom House which places Northern Cyprus above India when it comes to democracy index.

Explaining what he calls a bizarre report he said none of these analysts and researchers asks whether the country in question has a democratically elected head of government/state or not. Though this should be a naturally logical question they don't ask because if the answer and the final report is based on such answers, the entire Northern European nations will have serious issues as they don't have democratically elected heads of state, he said.

And at the end of such bizarre indicators, we have Freedom House placing Northern Cyprus higher than India in the democracy index. Let me remind you that Northern Cyprus is a country that's not recognised by the UN or any major country. It had carried out ethnic cleansing in the recent past. And I am sorry to say the world bank and IMF all vouch such reports on this country and come out with their own reports base on these so-called findings.

Earlier addressing the same event, Union minister Piyush Goyal urged chartered accountants the world over to come and form an umbrella body so that they help address the issues the world faces.

CAs should come from across the world and form an international body of accountants so that they can together and harmonise the standards of accounting, to harmonise the standards of financial reporting so that they can help every stakeholder better.