During a conversation at Harvard, Nirmala Sitharaman was asked about Amartya Sen’s views on BJP
Boston:
It is worrying that scholars may now be “influenced” and “imprisoned” by their likes and dislikes instead of commenting on facts, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said, as she took a dig at Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. did. Opinion about BJP government
During a talk organized by the Mosawar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government on Tuesday, Ms Sitharaman was asked by Harvard professor Lawrence Summers about “the number of people in our community”, particularly what economist Amartya Sen said about the BJP “rather Strong reservation”. Government.
He said there is a feeling that the legacy of tolerance has been “too much called into question” and that “the attitude of your government towards the Muslim population is something that comes among the United States, given our values of universality and inclusion.” happened, and India.”
During an interaction at Harvard Kennedy School, Ms Sitharaman said the issue of violence in BJP-ruled states also “won’t be at the prime minister’s door because it is in line with what I said.”
Ms Sitharaman said she respected “Dr. Amartya Sen, whom you mentioned,” and “I will think for each of us”, “he goes to India, roams freely and finds out that What is happening. It will help us to know, especially a scholar, who is speaking on the basis of facts.”
“No. It is worrying that scholars may now be more influenced by their personal likes and dislikes than by commenting on facts. It is indeed worrying that scholars may be imprisoned by their own likes and dislikes rather than by being equal, See the facts and data in front of them, and then speak up,” she said.
Ms Sitharaman said, “It is one thing to be considered and another thing entirely to be based on facts. If opinion becomes my bias, there is no way I can combat it.”
She said that “sometimes it’s an attempt to wake someone who’s pretending to be asleep. If you’re really asleep, I can tap your shoulder and say, ‘Please wake up’. But If you’re pretending to sleep, will you wake up. You can’t, you won’t. And I’m fooling myself into thinking I’m waking you up.”
He told the audience that in India, “law and order is a subject that each province has its own.”
If in the United States, there is a problem in a particular state, it cannot be a problem that the President of the United States has to deal with with the Governor of that state.
“The situation is the same in India. There are provinces that are not governed by a party that has a prime minister. Not even last night, not even a day before last night, even That last night also a state is governed… not the party whose prime minister is there, crimes have been committed, the poorest of the poor has been affected, some have died.
“But this will also be at the door of the Prime Minister because it is in line with my statement. This is not correct because in that state, in that province, the law and order is governed by the elected Chief Minister of that area, who is not a prime minister. Party man for Modi,” he said.
Ms Sitharaman said, “Tell me the number of people who have criticized Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi in such derogatory terms, called him by name, abused him. Has any of them been touched, has he been questioned. Whereas in non-BJP ruled states, when Chief Ministers are questioned, they should first be arrested and put in jail. I will name the states where this has happened.
“In fact, some of them are still jailed for ill-speaking about a particular elected chief minister who belongs to an opposition party. Can the same group of scholars who are talking about Prime Minister Modi be Will comment on states and say what is happening – India’s tolerant culture,” he said.
He recalled that in 2014 when PM Modi came to power, there was a series of attacks on churches. “And there were voices again. People returned their awards, the Padma awards that we give in the country, the highest civilian award, saying ‘this government is against minorities, the way Christians are being treated’. ‘Churches are being attacked, look,'” she said.
He said that in whichever state this happened, it has its own investigation, committees and police of the respective states.
“The Prime Minister had nothing to do with it. You will be surprised to know that each one of these attacks after proper investigation had nothing to do with the Prime Minister, nothing to do with the BJP, nothing to do with anybody. There was no communal angle.”
“But the blame was laid at the Prime Minister’s doorstep. The awards were returned saying, ‘It is difficult for me to live in this country, oh my minorities are being offended’. It turned out that none of them belonged. It also had nothing to do with the communal angle, and none of that has to do with the BJP or the prime minister,” he said.
Similarly, after 2019 when Prime Minister Modi came back with an even better, stronger mandate, “this campaign which is saying there is communal violence, communal whatever it is,” he said.
“Again there is the question of law and order being a state subject. Each state has its own. In states where the BJP doesn’t care, there has been atrocious violence. Whether that too has to be answered by the prime minister.”
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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