The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.

    Harvard versus hard work redux: What Amartya Sen said and how Rajiv Kumar responded

    Synopsis

    "Things have gone pretty badly wrong... It has taken a quantum jump in the wrong direction since 2014," Amartya Sen said.

    Rajiv-Kumar-PTI
    Rajiv Kumar said the Nobel laureate should spend some time in the country to see the structural reforms undertaken by the Modi government.

    Amartya Sen's recent comments on India's economy and the response from Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar have once again pitched Harvard against hard work.

    Recently, speaking at the launch of 'Bharat Aur Uske Virodhabhas', the Hindi edition of his book 'An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradiction' which he co-authored with development economist Jean Dreze, Sen said that despite being the fastest-growing economy India had taken a "quantum jump in the wrong direction" since 2014.

    "Things have gone pretty badly wrong... It has taken a quantum jump in the wrong direction since 2014. We are getting backwards in the fastest-growing economy," Sen said. Twenty years ago, he added, of the six countries in this region — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan — India was the second best after Sri Lanka. "Now, it is the second worst. Pakistan has managed to shield us from being the worst," he said. Sen also said that Dalits were not part of the economic growth. There was a whole group of people, those who cleaned lavatories or sewage with their hands, he said, whose demands and needs had been neglected.

    Taking a dig at the BJP-led government, Sen said that during freedom struggle it was difficult to see that a political battle could be won by playing up the Hindu identity, but that has changed now. "But, that has happened. Which is why, at this time, the whole issue of Opposition unity is so important," the 84-year-old economist said. "It is not a battle of one entity against the other (or) Mr Modi against Mr Rahul Gandhi, it is an issue of what India is," he added.

    Days after Sen's comments, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said the Nobel laureate should spend some time in the country to see the structural reforms undertaken by the Modi government. "I wish Professor Amartya Sen would spend some time within India and actually look at conditions on the ground. And at least review all work that has been done in the last four years by the Modi government before making such statements," Kumar said in an interview to PTI.

    "I actually would like to challenge him to show me another period of four years where so much work has been done for the making India cleaner, inclusive and more caring economy," Kumar said. According to him, structural reforms that have been taken are ensuring that benefits of growth reach to the last person. "If these things are not clear to him, then, I think he should spend some time here," he added.

    The Modi government takes pride in its various welfare schemes including the flagship Ujjawala Yojna aimed at increasing LPG cylinder coverage among poor families and Mudra Yojna that provides loans to small entrepreneurs. On the fourth anniversary of the BJP-led NDA government in May, party president Amit Shah said the Modi government's welfare schemes had benefitted 22 crore poor families and set an example of how a pro-people dispensation was run.

    Sen has also highlighted that India spends just a little over one per cent of its GDP on healthcare and this is leading the country into "a comprehensive healthcare crisis". However, the Modi government claims to have designed the world’s largest government-funded health care programme, Ayushman Bharat. But critics point out that the government has assigned inadequate money to the scheme.


    (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
    (Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2024 News, Budget 2024 Live Coverage, Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.

    ...more

    (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
    (Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2024 News, Budget 2024 Live Coverage, Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.

    ...more
    The Economic Times

    Stories you might be interested in