NITI Aayog VC to Amartya Sen: Spend Time in India to See Reforms

The vice chairman was responding to a query regarding Sen’s recent remarks about the present government.

File photo of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

(Photo: Reuters)

Days after Amartya Sen lamented that India has taken a quantum jump backwards since 2014, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Sunday, 15 July, said that the Nobel laureate should spend some time in the country to see the structural reforms undertaken by the Modi government.

Speaking to PTI in an interview, he said:

I wish Professor Amartya Sen would spend some time within India and actually look at conditions on the ground. And at least review all work that has been done in the last four years by the Modi government before making such statements.

Ravi Kumar

He was responding to a query regarding Mr Sen's recent remarks about the present government.

I actually would like to challenge him to show me another period of four years where so much work has been done for the making India cleaner, inclusive and more caring  economy.

Ravi Kumar

According to him, structural reforms that have been taken are ensuring that benefits of growth reach to the last person.

If these things are not clear to him, then, I think he should spend some time here.

“Quantum Jump” In The Wrong Direction

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the Chairman of Niti Aayog. Modi-led NDA government came to power in May 2014.

On 17 July, speaking at the launch of Bharat aur Uske Virodhabhas – the Hindi edition of his book 'An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions' – Mr Sen had said the country is now the second-worst in the region after having gone backwards in recent years.

"Things have gone pretty badly wrong... It has taken a quantum jump in the wrong direction since 2014. We are getting backwards in the fastest-growing economy.”

"Now, India is the second worst. Pakistan has managed to shield us from being the worst," Mr Sen had said.