1991 reforms could have begun in 1981, but not during Rajaji’s time, says Chidambaram

India could have carried out economic reforms 10 years before 1991, but “certainly not” during the time of Swatantra Party’s founder C. Rajagopalachari, the first and only Indian governor-general of independent India, former Union Minister P. Chidambaram told The Hindu 360, the Tamil YouTube channel of The Hindu.

Asked whether the country would have been better off had it followed Rajagopalachari’s prescription of opening up the economy in the late 1950s through the early 1970s, Mr. Chidambaram, who presented nine Union Budgets, acknowledged that the economic reforms could have begun in 1981.