US pulls out
Haley accused it of “chronic bias” against Israel and said the “disproportionate focus and unending hostility towards Israel is clear proof that the council is motivated by political bias, not by human rights”.
Pompeo called the council’s “continued and well-documented bias” against Israel “unconscionable”.
The state department has said the 47-member world body has issued 70 resolutions criticising Israel and it’s become a standard presence as “Item 7” on its agenda.
Just a day earlier, the UN council had delivered a a stinging criticism of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration that has led to children being separated from their families.
But a rupture had been in the making for a while between the US and UN body, which has existed in its present state since 2006, when it replaced UN Human Right Commission. The US, which had held off on membership for three years, has become the first member to leave it voluntarily.
The UN said in a statement: “The UN’S Human Rights architecture plays a very important role in the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide.” bad bank that will take over distressed assets from commercial banks. He was closely associated with the Goods and Services Tax launched last year and also conceptualised the so-called JAM trinity (Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar, Mobile) for direct transfer of public benefits. “He is an Advisor who has to analyse and thinks several steps ahead. It is a unique responsibility with freedom to do the work that he enjoys. Arvind functioned within these parameters and concentrated on the challenges to the economy. His early diagnosis of the twin balance-sheet problem had led us to adopt the macroeconomic strategy of higher public investment in the Budget of 2015-16,” Jaitley wrote in his blog.
The twin balance-sheet problem refers to the ballooning of bad loans at state-owned banks and corporate debt that many companies are unable to repay after overextending themselves to expand rapidly in the years when the economy was booming.
Commenting on his unfinished agenda Subramanian said: “There was a lot of demand for creating the office of CEA in a number of states, a number of chief ministers were keen to have something like this and I wish I had more bandwidth, time and energy to kind of do this in the states as well. I hope it will happen going forward.”
The Congress party used Subramanian’s departure to take a swipe at the government.
“Financial Experts of Modi Govt are completely fed up by its Colossal Economic Mismanagement, Tepid Economic Reforms & Financial Anarchy.
CEA, Arvind Subramanian’s resignation after the stepping down of Niti Aayog’s Arvind Panagriya & RBI Gov Raghuram Rajan comes as no surprise!” tweeted the Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.
“The brightest flee the sinking ship, as the ‘invisible hand’ of the RSS steers it onto the rocks,” said Congress president Rahul Gandhi in a tweet on Wednesday. To be sure, Subramanian attracted his share of controversy. He said last year that commenting on the beef ban would cost him his job.
His strong criticism of the Reserve Bank of India’s stance on monetary policy, when it refused to reduce rates in May 2017, also attracted attention.
The top-ranking official even found himself at the receiving end of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Subramanian Swamy’s Twitter posts in the past. Before moving to New Delhi as the CEA, Subramanian had advised the Indian government in various capacities.
He was also on the finance minister’s expert group on the Group of 20. Jaitley ended his Facebook post thus: “Personally I will miss his dynamism, energy, intellectual ability and ideas. He would walk into my room – at times several times a day, addressing me as “Minister” to give either the good news or otherwise. Needless to say his departure will be missed by me”.
Subramanian reciprocated, calling Jaitley the “dream boss.”. “Profoundly grateful & humbled by these extraordinarily generous words by Minister @arunjaitley announcing my decision to return-for personal reasons-to researching & writing. CEA job most rewarding, fulfilling, exciting I have ever had. Many many to thank,” Subramanian wrote in a tweet.