Subramanian Swamy and controversy are seldom far apart. Neither is Mr Swamy rarely minus a worthy foil. In the past this role has been played by Indira Gandhi, J Jayalalithaa, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Mr Swamy has also been an advocate of what at first sight appeared to be lost causes, but later became conventional wisdom - private enterprise in the 1960s and 1970s, making nuclear weapons in the 1960s, recognising Israel in the 1970s and so on.