The Amartya Sen model: Support Congress, no matter what

24 Jul, 2013, 0554 hrs IST

Amartya Sen is hardly a neutral observer, since his old ties with the Congress and with Jean Dreze, who was involved with UPA’s policymaking by being a founding member of the NAC, are well-documented.

Piyush Goyal


It is disheartening to see Nobel laureate Amartya Sen drifting so far to the Left that he cannot see the obvious benefits of growth and jobs. He desires to lend intellectual legitimacy to UPA's disastrous economic policies, designed solely for narrow electoral gains.

Sen is hardly a neutral observer, since his old ties with the Congress and with Jean Dreze, who was involved with UPA's policymaking by being a founding member of the NAC, are well-documented. Intellectuals of this predisposition are largely responsible for, among other devastating economic policies, the ill-conceived NREG: it's riddled with corruption and inefficiencies and, on average, hardly giving 43 days of employment per year. Considering that a mere 2.7 million jobs were created during 2005-10 under UPA, against 60.7 million jobs created under the NDA (as per Planning Commission), the NREG beneficiaries are no better today off than they were before.

The Rs 2 lakh crore spent on NREG could have created warehouses for grain and better rural schools and health centres, and focused on skill development to make poor Indians employable. UPA believes in institutionalising poverty and keeping people dependent on doles, in the hope that they'll keep getting voted back to power. It is amazing that Sen bemoans the collapse of the economy, but does not recognise the policies that have led to its collapse in the first place.

Plus, Sen should have rather given us an objective assessment of Rahul Gandhi, beyond saying he's a "likeable young man". But he obviously cannot since there is no vision or world view ever articulated by Mr Gandhi beyond deriding all that has happened in India over the last several decades, most of which were under governments run by his party and led by his family. Sen also doesn't seem to be in favour of open debates with his intellectual adversaries. Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya, with whom Sen is now seen to be locked in an argument, have issued such invitations.

On secularism, allow me to quote from an article written by commentator Swapan Dasgupta in 1998. Dasgupta had talked of Sen's "embarrassingly pedestrian interventions on secularism". That's part. Sen cannot understand the BJP perspective of secularism articulated by L K Advani, "justice for all, appeasement of none".

Nobody suggests that the Gujarat model is a one-size-fits-all. But is Sen opposed to good governance and growth that the Gujarat model is synonymous with? Also, is he opposed to zero tolerance for corruption, empowerment over entitlement, minimum government and maximum governance, skill development, training teachers and attracting entrepreneurs? Can Sen ignore this data from the Director General for Employment and Training: 80% of employment-exchange jobs were created in Gujarat? Also, is he aware that the Labour Bureau of India says Gujarat has the lowest unemployment rate in India at 1%? That's why I suspect Sen's opposition to the Gujarat model is not economic but political. This will also explain his deafening silence on the corruption scandals presided over by the UPA. Sen has rightly criticised the Food Security Bill for "not doing enough".

PTI recently reported a food ministry official saying all 35 states and UTs have been asked to follow the Gujarat and Chhattisgarh model of computerised PDS. These BJP-ruled states have devised a food security system that has come in for praise from courts monitoring public policy, from the Planning Commission and the World Bank.

Why didn't Sen, who was critical of the UPA's food security Bill for not doing enough, give the examples of the BJP-ruled states? If that's not politics, what is? Also, does Sen not agree that UPA should have built a consensus rather than foisting the Bill through the Ordinance route since Parliament was in any case due to be convened? I wish Sen could occasionally influence government in the right direction.

Sen is an eminent economist and should not play into the hands of a discredited and corrupt regime and become its spokesperson. I wish he had taken an independent view and recognised the immense long-term interests of India's poor — they will be the biggest beneficiaries of a truly investment-led growth-oriented government led by an honest and decisive leader. A leader like Narendra Modi.

The writer is MP and National Treasurer, Bharatiya Janata Party

Source: http://m.economictimes.com/opinion/comments-analysis/the-amartya-sen-model-support-congress-no-matter-what/articleshow/msid-21292211.cms