Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's interview with TOI: 'Bengal performing better in many ways than other states'
Times of India | 10 July 2024
The fabric of the country has been disturbed and the rich have grown richer even as the poor have grown poorer, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen tells Dipawali Mitra at his Santiniketan home, Pratichi, in an interview on what ails India & Bengal
Neglect of education, healthcare in India & the response in Bengal
The most important thing that I will say and that goes for all of India is the huge neglect of elementary education and healthcare and also the Indian problem of eliminating unemployment, which has much to do with the bad way in which education and healthcare are in India.Bengal is performing better in many ways than other states. There have been new initiatives and problems will be taken up and addressed. I do not think (Bengal CM) Mamata Banerjee has shown any reluctance to consider some additional things that have to be done. I will say major expansion and improving the quality of elementary education and healthcare is at the top of what has to be done in Bengal.
I cannot predict which way the state govt will go from here. But there have been many social issues that have been addressed by the previous Trinamool govt, including schemes like Lakshmir Bhandar, Sabuj Sathi and others. They are good schemes.
PM Modi’s third term
I hope PM Narendra Modi’s third term will be different from his first and second terms because the defects with public policy in the earlier periods are quite clear now. The important thing about detecting defects is to be able to correct them. Secondly, the kind of mandate that Modi has received now, it will be a limited run. The BJP does not have a majority, it cannot run Parliament without cooperation from other political parties.
The fabric of the country has been quite badly disturbed in the earlier period. India has turned out to be a kind of Hindu rashtra in the making as opposed to the secular country that the Constitution of India wanted and also something that Indian people, including Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and others, always wanted. That will change. Also, there has been a failure in terms of equity and justice whereby the rich have grown much richer and the poor have become poorer, not always but often. This needs to change as well.
Corruption & violence in politics
There have been a lot of complaints about the extent of corruption that is rampant in Indian politics anyway. At one stage there was an attempt by the Trinamool to stay clear of it, which they have not succeeded in doing, I think. Also, there has been violence of a kind (in this state) that is not good for any political leadership. It is not that the Trinamool has greater problems in this respect than the other parties, some people claim that. I am not able to judge it. On the other hand there are certainly problems here to address both in the field of honesty in politics as well as that of preventing violence and violent outbreaks.
Bengal’s economy
It is not different from the rest of the country. I think India in general is held up by neglect in elementary education and healthcare. The same is the case in Bengal; in some respects perhaps better but, in other respects, equally bad as the rest of India’s problems. I think the paramount importance of expanding and improving education and healthcare is central for Bengal. Also, I will again touch on the need to address corruption and violence, particularly strong in many parts of the country, though Bengal’s record is not as bad as some states’ in India.