This refers to the editorial "Needed: a shadow Cabinet" (May 19). You have rightly said "the idea of an all-purpose generalist has to be buried when it comes to sectors that are inherently complex". It is true of no ministry more than of the finance ministry. India had realised this right at the time of Independence, when it was fighting the damage caused to its economy by Pakistan-bound Liaqat Ali Khan's 1947 budget. Jawaharlal Nehru chose a financial expert and a non-Congressman, R K Shanmukham Chetty as his first finance minister. Chetty was replaced a year and a half later by John Mathai, a renowned economist. After Mathai decided to quit for personal reasons, the third finance minister was again the non-political C D Deshmukh, who was the Reserve Bank of India governor. Thus, for the first nine years, independent India had financial experts as its finance minister. The first non-Congress government that came to power after the Emergency, under Morarji Desai, chose H M Patel for the job. Patel, had been the finance secretary for many years. When he had to be replaced under political compulsions by Charan Singh, a pure generalist, the country had to pay a heavy price by way of unprecedented inflation and strangulation of the economy. P V Narasimha Rao's brilliant choice of appointing Manmohan Singh as his finance minister, which changed the course of India's economic history, is still fresh in everyone's memory.
In today's post-election scenario, when several divergent and mutually contradictory views are being expressed about the economy, India needs an established expert to head its finance ministry.
R C Mody New Delhi
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