Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has said that the recent Lok Sabha election results indicate that India is not a ‘Hindu Rashtra’.
Amartya Sen expressed displeasure that imprisonment of people “without trial” has continued in the country since the British rule, and that it is more prevalent under the BJP regime than the Congress regime.
Speaking to a Bengali news channel at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Amartya Sen said, “The election results reflect that India is not just a Hindu Rashtra.”
Amartya Sen, a 90-year-old economist, arrived in Kolkata from the US on Wednesday evening.
“We always hope to see a change after every election. Some of the earlier incidents (during the BJP-led central government) of throwing people in jail without trial and widening the gap between the rich and the poor still continue. It has to stop,” said Amartya Sen.
Renowned economist Amartya Sen said that while India is a secular country with a secular constitution, there is a need to be politically open-minded.
“I don’t think the idea of making India a Hindu Rashtra is appropriate,” Amartya Sen said.
Amartya Sen also opined that the new Union cabinet is a “copy of the previous cabinet”.
“Ministers continue to hold similar portfolios. Little has changed, but the politically powerful are still powerful,” said Amartya Sen.
Amartya Sen remembers that during his childhood when India was under British rule, people were jailed without trial.
“When I was young, many of my uncles and cousins were imprisoned without trial. We were hoping that India would be free from this. Congress is also the reason why it did not stop. They have not changed it… but it is still in practice under the present government,” said Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.
Talking about the BJP’s loss of the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat despite the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Amartya Sen said efforts were being made to hide the true identity of the country.
“… spending so much money and building a Ram Temple… portraying India as a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ should not have happened in the country of Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. It shows an attempt to ignore India’s true identity, which needs to change,” Amartya Sen said.
Amartya Sen said that unemployment is increasing in India and sectors like primary education and primary health are being neglected.
