Opinion: Blog | Bibek Debroy: For Whom Data Was Everything

When it comes to Bibek Debroy, two words, ‘polyglot’ and ‘polymath’, promptly come to mind. Post-Independence, India has been graced with numerous scholars and some ideologues masquerading as scholars, as well as propagandists masquerading as intellectuals. Unfortunately, very few of the lot have consistently kept an open mind and studied issues and contemporary events with the thirst of an eager student. Fewer still have successfully managed to bridge the past with the present and the traditional with the modern. Debroy belonged to this select club. One won’t find many who can elaborate on the forces of “creative destruction” as described by Joseph Schumpeter and simultaneously decode the significance of the hidden messages in the Puranas.

“Debroy Sir”, as this author called him, passed away too soon, at the young age of 69; he still had tons of wisdom to offer. But then, such is life. The co-author had last met Debroy Sir in his Niti Ayog office on September 10. The meeting involved a personal exchange of ideas and also an update on the work that the CVoter Foundation had been doing for the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister since October 2022. Sir looked visibly unwell. After talking a bit about the 2024 Lok Sabha election results and some more about the next report CVoter Foundation would submit, the co-author left with a promise from Sir that they would meet again after Deepavali. On the way out, the co-author checked with Mr. Krishnan, his secretary, and asked about Sir’s health. Krishnan had confirmed that he was very unwell.

How Debroy Fought Against Obsolete Laws

Many would write about Debroy’s tremendous capacity to straddle the world of ancient wisdom alongside modern dilemmas that affect the ordinary citizen. He toiled through tens of thousands of pages of “laws” dating back to the 19th century when the British ruled India. Hundreds of obsolete laws have been eliminated since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014. Some credit for that is definitely due to Debroy, who unflinchingly researched, wrote and talked about the damage such silly laws were doing to India. Even till recently, Debroy was persistent with his efforts in identifying and red-flagging needless regulations, rules and red tape. And while doing this, he managed to find time to translate dozens of ancient texts from Sanskrit into easy English that even young Indians could relate to. The output he produced was simply staggering. That was not all. The authors have seldom come across a more prolific columnist in contemporary India. The issues that he so deftly analysed without ideological posturing and verbose English should be a lesson for budding scholars and analysts.

But what the authors admired most about him was his integrity and spine. For many years, Debroy headed the research activities of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, which was headed by the then UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and her close advisors. Sometime after the UPA came to power in 2004, the Foundation started rating and ranking states on their performance based on a series of governance parameters. The Foundation ranked Gujarat, then led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, as the best-performing state. According to various media reports, the Congress top brass was very upset with this. The differences were too deep, and Debroy resigned. As a dignified person, he never publicly talked about the manner in which he had to leave the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. He was also malevolently targeted on social media by a section of people. To his credit, Debroy simply preferred to ignore the abuse.

Blunt And Open

Debroy was doing all this even as he served as the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to the Prime Minister. Some think that the position is largely a ceremonial one. But he absolutely did not fall into the category of a happy and satisfied ‘courtier’. Over the years, the authors personally presented some of the most unflattering data points to him. But to our surprise, he understood, and rather than softening the pinch, he always asked us to point things out even more bluntly, if possible. He believed our job was to dig out the bad news on economic matters upfront from the public perception data that we collect. Some of the sharpest minds in India have been members of the advisory board under him, and many institutions, big and small, have conducted research on its behalf on a range of issues.

For the co-author, the passing away of Debroy Sir is also a personal loss. More than 40 years ago, he was a Master’s student at the Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics in Pune, where Debroy was a young professor. Since then, he has considered Debroy Sir to be a mentor. The lead author regrets not meeting him more often. He has seldom met a scholar with such an open mind, a blunt but fair attitude, and a unique sense of humour. For the lead author, what was most admirable about Debroy Sir was his devotion to data.

India needs credible data. And it needed a polymath giant like Bibek Debroy.

(Yashwant Deshmukh is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of CVoter Foundation and Sutanu Guru is Executive Director)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author