Scholars slam Jagdish Bhagwati for attack on Amartya Sen

NEW DELHI: Several intellectuals have expressed concern over eminent economist Jagdish Bhagwati’s personal attack on Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, saying it is “offensive and abusive and factually incorrect.”
In a statement issued here, former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, noted journalist N Ram, economists Sudhir Anand and A K Shiva Kumar said Bhagwati’s charge that Sen appointed himself chancellor of Nalanda University is “patently false”.“Amartya Sen was requested by then President Pratibha Patil to undertake the role of chancellor without remuneration, which he did because of his commitment to the vision of Nalanda University, an invaluabale intellectual heritage of India, indeed for the world,” the statement said.
The scholars also cited several inaccuracies in Bhagwati’s “personal attack” on Sen. “Bhagwati’s claim that Sen asked for and accepted a million dollar from then BJP finance minister Yashwant Sinha for new NGO, whereas ‘I have not asked for a rupee or received any financing from the BJP’ , is false,” the statement said. “Free speech and dignified debate are an integral part of democratic functioning. Therefore, we cannot but be concerned about plummeting standards of intellectual debate,” the statement added.