Sonia steps back, Debroy is back

The decision to ‘‘create space’’ for Debroy, sources said, was formalised at a meeting of the RGCIS governing council headed by Gandhi last evening. The council members are Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Y K Alagh, Ashok Ganguly, IG Patel, CNR Rao, V Krishnamurthy and P Chidambaram.

Debroy resigned following a letter from RGF chairperson Sonia Gandhi, asking him to get all research papers meant for publication cleared by the executive council. Gandhi’s instruction followed Debroy’s report on economic freedom in Indian states which gave top ranking to Gujarat. The report was celebrated and publicised by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Debroy told his senior colleagues about the letter and its implications at a specially convened office meeting and resigned on July 1. Last week, Debroy had confirmed to The Indian Express that he would leave office after a two-month notice period on August 31.

Today, an RGF press release claimed that it attaches ‘‘importance to preserving RGICS’s independence and its freedom to express different point of views.’’ It also said that ‘‘recent media reports that all studies undertaken by RGCIS will, in future, be vetted by the executive committee of the RGF are incorrect.’’

‘‘We can understand there was pressure on Debroy as he had put in his papers. But listening to good advice and undoing wrong decisions takes a very gutsy statesman and today’s RGF statement is highly commendable,’’ Laveesh Bhandari, co-author of the controversial report, Economic Freedom for states of India, told The Indian Express.

‘‘If they have claimed they never wanted us to get our papers vetted by the executive committee, we should let them have that face-saver. After all, they have reviewed their stand and taken a bold decision to retain Debroy,’’ a researcher at RGCIS said.

‘‘We are happy that he will continue as the director. At this point, we should avoid controversy and look ahead,’’ said Subodh Kumar of Friedrish Naumann Stiftung, the German institute that commissioned the report.

According to the RGF statement today, the research work of the RGICS will ‘‘continue to be guided by the Research Advisory Council which comprises eminent economists and experts.’’ V Krishnamurthy, Y K Alagh, Kirit Parekh, Arjun Sengupta, Shekhar Raha and Bibek Debroy himself are members of this panel.