A message to the Indian crypto community

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"...just reach out to me, and I have the ability to create, let us say, documents with your inputs, and have that presented either in Parliament or to the government."

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A former Silicon tech-entrepreneur, a billionaire and currently a Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from the ruling government party (BJP) , Mr. Rajeev Chandrasekhar has a message to the Indian crypto enthusiasts. Mr. Chandrashekhar has advised crypto community not to snipe at Government or RBI from sidelines. Instead, they should come forward and engage in conversations with the influential people in public life to make them understand the issue.

they should get together, they should engage in those in public life, instead of sniping from the sidelines

Get in the mainstream, engage and have a conversation. Discuss it, be challenged, and challenge people right back, and then see at the end of the day what happens, what comes out of it. But, to sit and stand on the sidelines, sort of in the shadows and you know, we are way smarter than everybody else and people just don't get us, and then, complain and whine later on, then you know, you only have yourself to blame.

Being a techie himself, Mr. Rajeev Chandrashekhar has been pro-technology and takes pride in attempting to keep "ahead of curve".

Earlier, he had filed a petition regarding the right to privacy to which Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that privacy is a fundamental right of every citizen.

Mr. Chandrashekhar also played a key role in promoting and framing policies for net-neutrality.

He is ready to talk about the case for cryptocurreencies and is very vocal about it.

In about an hour long conversation with Charlie Shrem, an American entrepreneur and bitcoin advocate, on his podcast show called "Untold Stories", Mr. Chandrashekhar touched subjects like early challenges in innovations, how tech can help for better governance, importance of privacy vis-a-vis governance issues, demonetization and its reasons, advantages of self-regulations, how crypto faces more challenges than internet revolution etc.

This is how the MP responded to a question from Nischal Shetty who has been steering #IndiaWantsCrypto campaign on Twitter for several months now, for why Government isn't involving stakeholders from crypto space in the policy making:

I think that those of you, who have a view on crypto and believe that there is sufficient room, in the public policy space, for the policies to evolve and be inclusive of innovation, and at the same time, address the security and other concerns. They should just reach out to me, and I have the ability to create, let us say, documents with your inputs, and have that presented either in Parliament or to the government. So, don't worry about what goes on in government, and that is one particular point of view. India is a fairly vibrant democracy in the sense that you can still approach people like me, and evolve an alternate view and have that alternate view be discussed, narrated, and debated within government. I can do that, you know, I'd encourage you to reach out to me.

This is a very action oriented answer and crypto community should take it as a practical advice to work on if they really want Government to see crypto space in a positive way.

With such initiatives, I hope more people in Government and the Parliament can grasp the advantages of the cryptocurrencies.

Here is the transcript for full podcast in case you are interested.