Congress says Sitharaman must explain PMO's role in promoting Subramanian's book with public money, demands probe

New Delhi: The Union Bank of India's purchase of nearly two lakh copies of Krishnamurthy V Subramanian's book at Rs 7.25 crore appears to have prompted his surprise termination from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with the Congress on Tuesday demanding a probe into the public sector bank’s decision and the conflict of interest involved in it.

Quoting documents, the party claimed the Union Bank ordered 1,99,872 copies of Subramanian's ‘India@100: Envisioning Tomorrow’s Economic Power House’ at a cost of Rs 7.25 crore and paid Rs 3.5 crore in advance. The rest were asked to be paid by the regional offices and “shown under miscellaneous expenses”.

Subramanian, a former Chief Economic Adviser, was shunted out as India’s Executive Director in the IMF a couple of days ago, with the government giving no reasons for his departure six months before his three-year-tenure in the multilateral financial body.

Addressing a press conference, Congress Social Media and Digital Platforms Chairperson Supriya Shrinate claimed that bank’s internal documents have shown that it placed the order for the book in June-July last year, which included 1,89,450 paperback versions and 10,422 hard bound copies at a cost of Rs 7.25 crore.

The books by the “known cheerleader of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP” were to be distributed by Zonal and Regional Offices of the bank to students, account holders, colleges and libraries, Shrinate said.

“He is the same Subramanian, who was the Chief Economic Advisor and who had during Covid, when the economy had shrunk by over 24%, predicted a V-shaped recovery that never happened. During his tenure and beyond, instead of giving sane economic advice, he has consistently chosen to be a cheerleader of the government instead,” she said.

She alleged that the cost of this “blatant propaganda” is not being incurred by the BJP but the burden is being borne by the public exchequer. It is being done because Subramanian “justified every economic blunder and flawed policy” of the government and “made baseless allegations against the economic policies of the previous governments”, she said.

Demanding a probe, she asked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to come clean on this and explain why and how the Prime Minister’s Office was “involved in promoting one of his cheerleaders by wasting public money”.

She posed a query as to whether Union Bank MD & CEO  A Manimekhalai, who is due for an extension in June 2025, “facilitated” the royalty payments” from this purchase as an “indirect bribe to lobby for her extension”. 

Shrinate wanted the government to explain whether the bank had obtained prior approval from its Board of Directors or the Department of Financial Services (DFS) for  the bulk purchase of books. 

She also asked whether the Finance Ministry investigated whether the transaction constitutes a conflict of interest, given Subramanian’s previous role as Chief Economic Advisor and his proximity to key government figures.