Due to his father's job and the family's Tamil roots, major national leaders like K. Kamaraj, C. Rajagopalachari and S. Satyamurti often visited Sitaraman.

[1][22] He was removed from the position by its board of governors in the early 1970s because of his disapproval of Indira Gandhi's poor economic policies but was legally reinstated in the late 1990s by the Supreme Court of India.

Liberal economic policies put forward by him did not go well with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who sneered at his plans as 'Santa Claus with unrealistic ideas'.

As a staunch opponent of Indira Gandhi, the opposition part, Bharatiya Jana Sangh sent him to Rajya Sabha – the upper house of Indian Parliament.

On 27 December 1990, Financial Times published an interview of Swamy by David Housego in which he claimed that the decision to raise import duties by his government is a "panic reaction".

[44] In Parliament Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar claimed that Swamy had denied what had been attributed to him in the article, but David Housego who wrote the story stood firmly by it.

[55] This meeting was attended by various leaders like Chandra Shekhar, P. V. Narasimha Rao, H. D. Deve Gowda, J. Jayalalithaa, Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi etc.

[58][59][60] On 15 May 2004, Swamy wrote a letter to President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam raising doubt whether Sonia Gandhi can become Prime Minister of India citing Section 5 of Citizenship Act, 1955.

[61][62] On 11 October 2004, Swamy along with Chandra Shekhar and George Fernandes formed Rashtriya Swabhiman Manch to oppose Sonia Gandhi and policies adopted by UPA government.

[65] On 8 April 2015, Swamy formed Virat Hindustan Sangam, a right-wing cultural organisation to push issues like building Ram Mandir, scrapping Article 370 and bringing Uniform Civil Code.

[66][67] In 1996, Swamy had filed a criminal complaint against Jayalalithaa which led to her prosecution, conviction and sentencing to four years imprisonment by the trial court in 2014.

[75][76][77] In 1987, when Muslim youths were killed under police custody, Swamy spoke against it and sat on a fast for more than a week in Jantar Mantar demanding the institution of an inquiry.

[80] In November 2008, Swamy amongst others wrote the first of five letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking permission to prosecute A. Raja in regard to 2G spectrum case.

[81] After not receiving any response,[82] Swamy decided to file a case on his own in the Supreme Court of India regarding the matter, which then asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to produce a detailed report on it.

The court said that "Protection of prior approval for probing graft charges against officers at level of joint secretary and above has propensity of shielding corruption.

"[92][93] Incumbent CBI Director Ranjit Sinha welcomed the judgement and said, "now a very heavy responsibility has been cast upon us to ensure that no innocent civil-servant is harassed.

"[94] Swamy demanded that an independent committee should be formed to check the security and safety of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) to avoid any rigging or tampering.

The court further asked the Election Commission to "immediately begin a process of wider consultations" and the Parliament "to go into this question in depth and decide".

[114] Swamy decided to approach the Supreme Court for de-recognising the Congress party, while the Election Commission ordered the probe on 17 November 2012.

[119][122][123] on 1 August 2014 the Enforcement Directorate initiated probe to find any money laundering in the case[124] while on the same day Swamy was served notice by the High Court.

[144] Subramanian Swamy filed a petition to remove Kerala State government's control over Hindu temples by abolishing Devaswom.

The Supreme Court issued notice to the Kerala government and Devaswom Board of Travanacore and Cochin and sought their response in six weeks.

[149] In February 2020, Subramanian Swamy filed a public interest litigation in Uttarakhand High Court against newly framed law to govern Char Dham and 51 other temples of the state.

[154] In various speeches and articles, Swamy has expressed his admiration for, and solidarity with, the State of Israel and has credited its retaliatory capacity for its ability to survive as a nation in a hostile Arab environment.

[169][170] Swamy discussed the idea of an autonomous development council for the Kodavas with H N Ananth Kumar in 2018 in the presence of Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and wrote a letter to Karnataka's CM B S Yediyurappa seeking implementation of the demand in 2019.

[171][172][173] In 2023, his PIL filed on behalf of CNC caused the High Court to order issue of notice to the State and Central Governments to set up a commission to examine the demand for geo-political autonomy for the Kodava tribe.

[175] In 2018, when the Indian Supreme Court decriminalized gay sexual acts, Swamy criticised the ruling, saying "It could give rise to an increase in the number of HIV cases.

"[176][177] In September 2008, Swamy stridently retorted against the contentions of some Indian columnists who voiced their opinions in favor of "peacefully" surrendering Kashmir to Pakistan(source?).

He said, Swamy is well known for his critical views against the "Aryan versus Dravidian" politics of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, calling it as the theory forwarded by the British.

[194] After the 2011 Mumbai bombings, he wrote a controversial editorial wherein, as a response to Islamic terrorism,[195] he called for the removal of 300 mosques built at sites of Hindu temples.