Amartya Sen, Bhagwati academic debate gets caught in politics
In the span of three weeks, the differences between dueling economists Amartya Sen, a Nobel winner, and Jagadish Bhagawati, a Columbia University professor, have metamorphosed from academic to political, and perhaps, personal.
In the span of three weeks, the differences between dueling economists Amartya Sen, a Nobel winner, and Jagadish Bhagawati, a Columbia University professor, have metamorphosed from academic to political, and perhaps, personal.
Sen and Bhagwati represent two of India's well-known economic minds in the western academia and even those aware of their differences could never have conceived that it would be such a spectacle.
A review of Sen's new book An Uncertain Glory, co-authored with long-time collaborator Jean Dreze, in the Economist magazine triggered the joust. The review of Sen's book credited Bhagwati and his collaborator Professor Arvind Panagariya for advocating labour and land reform for achieving growth and poverty reduction. However, the reviewer applauded Sen and Dreze for aiming to go "much further" (in improving living conditions).
In a letter published in the magazine, Bhagwati took a swipe at this, saying he was "puzzled" over how far Sen could go and accusing Sen of offering only a "lip-service" to growth.
Sen, of course, had to "correct" Bhagwati. "On the contrary, the importance of economic growth as means - not an end - has been a theme in my earlier writings (including Choice of Techniques in 1960 and Growth Economics in 1970)," he said in his letter published in the magazine.
The academic debate, however, got caught up in politics over whether Narendra Modi should be Prime Minister of India and whether his development model was "inclusive".
Asked in an interview whether he would want Modi as the Prime Minister of India, Sen said he would not, citing Modi's controversial record on the treatment of minorities in Gujarat. He repeated his stand in an interview with NDTV on Thursday: "I would like to see someone who would not generate worry and concern on part of large sections of the community, the minorities."
The fact that his associate Dreze has also been involved in food security idea in its early days as member of Sonia Gandhi's NAC has obviously made the debate all the more political, with Sen facing questions whether he was tacitly backing the UPA. He has however maintained that he is not.
Many are seeing Sen as standing for the "poverty-reduction" development model of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and Bhagwati as more on the side of Modi's development approach focusing on growth more than inequality.
Bhagwati in fact explicitly backed Gujarat's development without endorsing Modi or Rahul Gandhi, saying, "Gujarat has produced growth and also that the change in its social indicators is remarkable, whereas Kerala is by no means the great model of development that Sen has long extolled for its 'redistribution' under the communist regimes. Bangladesh to which Sen has now turned is also no paragon of virtue."
He attacked Sen, saying he was a later entrant in economics aimed at poverty reduction. "Sen has caught up with such issues only later and is sometimes described as the Mother Teresa of economics. But she did a lot of good at the micro level, whereas (as I discuss below) his policy prescriptions have done huge damage instead. Let us not insult Mother Teresa."
Sen replied that he wouldn't like to get personal, as it was not his "style".