Modi govt trying to control academic bodies: Amartya Sen

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, July 7, 2015: Nobel prize winner and top economist Amartya Sen has attacked the Narendra Modi government over its interference to control academic institutions in the country. In an exclusive interview to TV Today Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai, Sen lashed out at the BJP-led government over his "ouster" from the Nalanda University chancellorship.

"Some members of the Board wanted me to continue, but I stepped aside as I did not want to be an ineffective leader," Sen said in a statement which is certain to give the Congress and other Opposition parties more ammunition to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He also hit out at the Modi government over its "interference" in academia, saying it has never happened on this scale now and rued the "cuts" in the country’s health and education budget. "The academic interferance that we see now has never really happened in India on this scale."

Sen, however, chose to maintain his silence when asked whether he believes that his ouster was  directly related to the fact that during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he had said that, "as an Indian citizen, I do not want Narendra Modi to be the prime minister of India."

Sen is reported to have written about his exit from Nalanda University in a 4,000 word candid essay about to be published in the August issue of the New York Review of Books. Sen’s forthcoming book ’The Country Of First Boys’, a collection of essays, also dwells on his experiences at Nalanda.

Amartya Sen, in February, withdrew his candidature as chancellor of Nalanda University, alleging that the government does not want him to continue to head the institute. He was replaced by George Yeo, former foreign minister of Singapore.

Sen was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in welfare economics in 1998.

 

Courtesy: Indiatoday