Who is George Soros, the billionaire investor who has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi?

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already hit back at Soros’ remarks. Union Minister Smriti Irani called Soros’ remark a “declaration to destroy India’s democratic processes’, and added, “War is being mounted against India, PM Modi standing between it and the country’s interest,” quoted news agency PTI.

Who is George Soros?

George Soros is a billionaire Hungarian-American investor, hedge-fund manager, short-seller and philanthropist.

Born in 1930 to a prosperous Jewish family in Hungary, his family changed their name from “Schwartz” to “Soros” to camouflage their Jewish identity amidst the rise of anti-semitism in Hungary which culminated with Nazi occupation. His family survived the Holocaust by purchasing forged identity papers.

The billionaire later recalled that “instead of submitting to our fate, we resisted an evil force that was much stronger than we were—yet we prevailed. Not only did we survive, but we managed to help others.”

After the War, as the Communists consolidated their position in Hungary, Soros left for London where he got a degree from the London School of Economics, before becoming an investment banker. He opened his first hedge fund, Double Eagle, in 1969. In 1973, he opened Soros Fund Management, and went on to become one of the most successful investors in the history of the United States.

He is known as “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England” because of his short sale of $10 billion worth of pounds sterling, which made him a profit of $1 billion during the 1992 Black Wednesday UK currency crisis.

George Soros: ‘The most generous giver’

Using his wealth he opened the Open Society Foundations, “a network of foundations, partners, and projects in more than 100 countries.” Soros’ philanthropy is inspired by his LSE professor Karl Popper’s book Open Society and Its Enemies where the philosopher argues that “societies can only flourish when they allow for democratic governance, freedom of expression, and respect for individual rights”, the ostensible core of the Open Society Foundations’ message.

According to his website, “he has given away more than $ 32 billion of his personal fortune” to fund the Open Society Foundations’ work around the world. Due to this, in 2020, Forbes called him “the most generous giver”, in terms of per centage of wealth donated – Soros has reportedly donated over 64 per cent of his original fortune.

“Under his leadership, the Open Society Foundations have supported individuals and organizations across the globe fighting for freedom of expression, accountable government, and societies that promote justice and equality”, his website says. Over the years, Soros’ philanthropy has addressed a variety of issues, from providing scholarships to black South Africans during the apartheid and promoting academic exchanges with Communist Hungary to promoting medical marijuana and supporting same-sex marriages.

Not the first time George Soros is criticising PM Modi

Notably, this is not the first time George Soros has criticised Prime Minister Modi. In 2020, speaking about the “frightening rise of nationalism in India”, Soros had said: “The biggest and most frightening setback occurred in India where a democratically elected Narendra Modi is creating a Hindu nationalist state, imposing punitive measures on Kashmir, a semi-autonomous Muslim region, and threatening to deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship.”

A self-professed liberal, Soros has been a firm opponent of “repressive regimes” across the world. “The greatest shortcoming of dictatorships is that when they are successful, they don’t know when or how to stop being repressive. They lack the checks and balances that give democracies a degree of stability. As a result, the oppressed revolt. We see this happening today all around the world,” Soros said in 2020.