There are certainly good reasons for political parties to follow individual goals, but the rejection of communalism should be a shared value without which “we shall not be worthy heirs of Tagore and Netaji," Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has said.
He said in West Bengal, the leftist parties and other secular parties have no less determination than the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in India to ensure that communalism in the state does not rear its ugly head, reports the National Herald, an Indian newspaper.
India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was also subjected to heavy criticism for its policies by the celebrated economist. Meanwhile, the communal side of the TMC has long been revealed.
The 87-year-old Harvard professor said he was sure that the citizens of India would oppose non-secular powers. "Bengal had in the past greatly suffered due to communalism," he noted.
In the run-up to the assembly elections, with Bengal's icons taking the centre stage in political discourse, Sen said one must note that all the luminaries "have wanted and argued" for unity.
“Rabindranath Tagore, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Swami Vivekananda, all wanted and argued for a united Bengali culture, and there is no room in their social objective for trying to excite one community against another,” Sen said.
"That is the Bengali culture that we have come to admire and support. Kazi Nazrul Islam is as big a Bengali leader as the others. Bengal has greatly suffered from communalism in the past and has learned to reject it firmly," Sen further added.
Asked about the recent row of suspected "illegal" ownership of land at Visva Bharati in India by his relatives, the economist denied the accusation and said "false statements" were given to the media by the vice-chancellor of the hallowed institution of India.
However, Sen refused to hold the BJP accountable for the row, as several quarters have indicated.
Last week, a controversy erupted when the media reported that the central university wrote to the government of West Bengal alleging that many land parcels owned by it were wrongfully registered on behalf of private parties, including Sen.
The Nobel laureate said there is a long-term lease on the university land on which his house sits, which is nowhere near its expiration.
On behalf of the state, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offered Sen an apology and also wrote to him, asking him to consider her a "sister and friend" in his fight against "intolerance and totalitarianism".
BJP's national General Secretary and Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya, reacting sharply to Sen's allegations seemingly targeting the saffron party, said his claims were devoid of any truth.
Elections are scheduled to take place in India in April-May next year for the 294-member West Bengal assembly.
