India Top Stories

Modi versus Amartya : Vivekanand Jha

The latest whataboutery involving Bidyut Chakraborty, the Vice Chancellor of Vishwa Bharti university, and that of the Nobel laureate Dr Amartya Sen, has its seeds embedded in the year2014 when the latter had staunchly opposed Narendra Modi’s election as India’s fourteenth Prime Minister.

 Vivekanand Jha, Ranchi: Dr Amartya Sen, a global academician, a Nobel laureate, Bharat Ratna, ostensibly nourishes an unquenchable longings to be in limelight, far disproportionate to any other Nobel laureate in India or, for that matter, anywhere in the globe would. Significantly, with his friend Dr Manmohan Singh in saddle, Dr Sen’s ubiquitous presence in India, in full media glare, was the natural spectacle for the country to behold.
Manmohan-Sonia to place an overwhelming reliance on the expert advice of the Nobel laureate. No wonder those were the days Dr Amartya Sen had come to be inseparably associated with UPA regime. Also, the status symbol that Dr Sen would enjoy, was akin to no less than a Union Minister. Apparently, his proximity with Sonia and Manmohan, was far greater in degree than that of the most of the Union Ministers, if not all. It was during such times when the UPA regime was tottering on the corruption of the worst form, with monumental corruption charges being labeled against it, culminating in 3G scam which left the government gasping for its breath.
Smitten by the series of corruption scams, with its minister of Telecommunication A Raja, MP Kanimojhi and another Congress leader Suresh Kalmadi, were already in jail, the impoverishment level of the common mass had reached an abysmally low. Thus, Sonia, as usual, had turned towards the Nobel laureate Dr Amartya Sen to salvage the situation for the Congress Party. Worse still, Narendra Modi’s messianic rise as a challenger to the dynasty, had already begun giving Sonia the sleepless nights. His continuous targeting of the dynasty as the reason for India’s privation, started gaining traction with the youth, backed by his flaunting of Gujarat Model of Development as his biggest credential, began resonating with the electorate. Against this backdrop, Sonia had desperately sought the counsel of Dr Amartya Sen to salvage Congress Party from its impending doom. Amartya, rising to the occasion, did justice to the faith reposed in him:
The dynamic Food Security Bill was framed to provide a cure from hunger with an underlying message: None will die out of hunger. The bill, despite its pitfalls, was dubbed as revolutionary. Further, in line with providing a large scale employment to the vast army of unemployed people, especially in rural areas, UPA had unveiled another innovation: MGNREGA, where Dr Amartya Sen’s contribution too was solicited. Dr Sen, purportedly propped up the concept of reviving Nalanda University to its pristine glory. The idea had strongly resonated with the Union as well  as the state government. Nitish Kumar, the then Chief Minister of Bihar-he still continues to be the same–hailing from Nalanda, he evinced a special interest. Dr Amartya Sen was entrusted to elevate Nalanda to the world standard. He was appointed as the Chancellor of the University and was empowered to constitute the team of academics.
Here Dr Sen committed certain blatant omissions and commissions. The formidable of one such omissions was the appointment of a C grader Gopa Sabharwal as the Vice Chancellor of the University on a hefty remuneration of rupees five lacs per month. Regrettably, with such illustrious men like Dr Prapap Bhanu Mehta and Ramchandra Guha applying for the given post, how could Gopa Sabharwal trip the formers and emerge triumphant, continues to remain the conundrum till date? Moreover, Ashok Malik, writing a piece in Indian Express, had indicted Dr Sen for the defalcation of the sum of rupees 2,700 crepes and had sought a comprehensive enquiry into the same. It was during this time, when Dr Sen was calling shots, his hubris had almost increased manifold: He completely forgot that thin line of demarcation that separated him from that of the hard core politicians. In his overwhelming exuberance brought about by the disproportionate power and authority that he had come to enjoy, Dr Sen had made an undesirable observation: Rahul Gandhi will make a better Prime Minister than Narendra Modi.
Even if he had stopped there, it would be presumed that as a friend of Gandhis, he was making an enthusiastic observation. But then Dr Amartya Sen, symptomatic of a stakeholder of Gandhi-Nehru family, had gone overboard to publicly ask for the defeat of Narendra Modi and an outright victory of Rahul Gandhi. No wonder this unwarranted interference in the domestic politics by a Nobel laureate, whereas it endeared him to the dynasty, it alienated him from BJP and Narendra Modi. The outrage of Sen’s publicly soliciting victory for Rahul Gandhi and defeat of Narendra Modi, had prompted another great economist Jagdish Bhagwati to publicly proclaim that, ‘ Amartya Sen’s Nobel had destroyed India’. As expected, with the dawn of Modi Raj, Amartya Sen resigned from chancellorship of Nalanda University and his ubiquitous presence in India, showed a remarkable decline. All the state trappings of power which continued to revolve around Dr Sen, during Sonia-Manmohan regime, suddenly became a thing of the past. Modi could neither forget nor forgive Dr Sen’s vehement opposition to him.
Neither did Sen forget or forgive Modi for stripping him of all state paraphernalia which he was used to in the past. Small wonder then, Sen became the worst critic of Modi’s Hindu nationalism. Further, all such decisions like de-monitisation, CAA, GST, the latest Farm Bills –all these came for Sen’s censure. However, the latest whataboutery stirred by Bidyut Chakraborty, the V.C. of Vishwa Bharti University, claiming that Dr Sen had spoken to him, introducing to him as Bharat Ratna, seeking the annulment of the drive to vacate the land purportedly belonging to University, which locates Dr Sen’s home, adds to the sordid cacophony that vitiates the civilised discourse. Amartya Sen, notwithstanding his various omissions and commissions, is not the man who can stoop so low to introduce himself in such undignified manner.
Only his name as a Nobel laureate, itself is the enough of introduction and, therefore, the fact that he had egotistically called himself as a Bharat  Ratna, belies the charges labeled against him. Amartya Sen, in the past, had repeatedly offered to return Bharat Ratna to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had originally conferred upon him the highest Civilian award. Regrettably, Modi versus Sen battle has degenerated to such low that others are seeking to fish in the troubled waters.
The recent statement of Mamata Banerjee to express her solidarity Sen, is the exemplification of the political colour that this sordid episode has assumed today. Hence in this backdrop, when it is an open secret that Bidyut Chakraborty is fighting a proxy battle on behalf of the Prime Minister which is absolutely obnoxious in the public interest, it is highly expected that Modi should call it a truce by publicly discouraging his proxies who all are unabashedly targeting the Nobel laureate. Dr Amartya Sen is a global academician who deserves the nation’s respect and consequently government should avoid the ongoing mudslinging against Dr Sen.
Vivekanand Jha, author of Delhi Beckons: RaGa for NaMo, 56 Inches and The Making of Narendra Modi, Unmaking of Jawaharlal.

Leave a Reply