Friday, July 26, 2013

Amartya Bhagwati or Jagdish Sen?

Even as the bitter slugfest between the two Economics pundits continues, both are feeling the heat and are desirous of reaching a decent patch-up. That is why Amartya Babu has started saying that he was never against growth and Jagdish Bhagwati claims he is not supporting either Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi.

But the damage has been done. The whole world has been witness to how low great minds can stoop to score a point over a deemed adversary. Chandan Mitra has contributed his share to the entertainment seeking cancellation of Bharat Ratna award given to Amartya Sen. Sen could have gracefully ignored Mitra, but chose to observe that he would surrender the award if so asked by Vajpayee. Sen knows only too well that Vajpayee is unfortunately in no condition to apply his mind.

It in interesting but has been generally overlooked that Sen is now distancing himself from the methodology adopted for Food Security. There are obviously limits beyond which he will not stake his academic reputation at the altar of political opportunism.

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