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Chief Guest

Dr. Subramanian Swamy

Hon'ble Member of Rajya Sabha
20th Mahaveer Award - 2017
Chief Guest Flower

Subramanian Swamy (born 15 September 1939) is an Indian economist, mathematician, jurist and politician who serves as a Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament.He was the President of the Janata Party until it merged with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).Swamy has served as a member of the Planning Commission of India and was a Cabinet Minister in the Chandra Shekhar government. Earlier in November 1978, Swamy was member of the Group of Eminent persons and was called to Geneva, Switzerland to prepare a report of the United Nations (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)) on Economic Co-operation between Developing countries (ECDC). Swamy also simplified trade procedures and formulated a new export strategy which became the forerunner of trade reform adopted subsequently. In 1994, Swamy was Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade by former Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao.

He also serves as chairman of the Board of Governors of the SCMS Group of Educational Institutions in Kerala. He has written on foreign affairs of India dealing largely with People's Republic of China (PRC), Pakistan and Israel. He was nominated to Rajya Sabha on 26 April 2016.

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.Swamy during this time described Sonia Gandhi, Jayalalithaa and Mayawati as "three great ladies" and compared them with Lakshmi, Saraswati and Durga respectively. The real turn in his political career came after his sacking from IIT. Liberal economic policies put forward by him didn't go well with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who discredited him as 'Santa Claus with unrealistic ideas'. He was later expelled from Indian Institute of Technology. This marked the beginning of his active political career. Staunch opponent of Indira Gandhi and right wing political party Bharatiya Jana Sangh sent him to Rajya Sabha – the upper house of Indian Parliament.

He was elected Member of Parliament 5 times between 1974 and 1999. He has twice represented the city of Mumbai North East during 1977 and 1980, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the Parliament.

During the period of the Emergency, he fled to the United States, seeking haven with an Indian businessman in Michigan who had become the spokesperson of the opposition in the United States. In 1976, when the Emergency was still in force and an arrest warrant had been issued in his name, Swamy came to Parliament to attend the session and managed to escape India after the session was adjourned. This act of defiance was well received in the eyes of opposition parties.

Swamy was one of the founding members of the Janata Party and served as its president till 2013.