Amartya Sen now sees PM Modi in new light, despite secular concerns

If a politician’s success can be gauged by how he has won over the critics, Narendra Modi’s seven-month tenure can be considered a reasonable success already.

At an interaction organised by The Indian Express, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen said he remained a critic of Modi, but also offered more than grudging admiration for the man who he has repeatedly said would not make a good Prime minister due to his non-secular image.

In May, while casting his vote in Bolpur in West Bengal, Sen had said: “I don’t think he is a good prime ministerial candidate. Obviously he is very popular in some sections. He is very popular among the business community. That doesn’t mean he is my favourite candidate.”

Yesterday (21 December), he had modified his tune. “I am critical of Mr Modi but I have to say he has given a sense of faith to people that things can happen. It may not be in exactly the same way that I would have liked to have happened… I think it is quite an achievement. It is a compliment, but our differences on secularism and other things don’t go away.”

Nor was this the only compliment he offered. Sen said: “For several years I was writing about open defecation and how the toilet is needed. This is the second thing I am praising about Mr Modi now… that on top of the Red Fort, he shared many good things, one of which was the absence of toilets and the other was the fear women suffer from. Not much has been done, but at least it is being talked about now.”

In two other areas, Sen did not specifically praise Modi, but one should see this as indirect praise for the NDA government, since it accords well with its stated positions.

Sen said his stand on welfare was not that of the UPA – where subsidies were offered for cooking gas and diesel. He favoured government spending on health and education, not on non-merit subsidies involving petro-fuels. The Modi government has abolished subsidies on diesel, and cooking gas subsidies are being shifted to the direct benefits transfer scheme, which will reduce leakages.

Even on the UPA’s flagship schemes, NREGA and food security, Sen seemed to be tilting in favour of designing these schemes better. He said: “On food security, there was a lot of criticism from those supporting the (NDA) government, but the government has actually fought with the WTO to keep the food security on, and that itself is a good policy, though it has to be redone.” And on NREGA, Sen said it was badly in need of reform.

These stands are in tune with those of the Modi government, which has been dismissed as pro-business and right-wing.

Sen, obviously disagrees on one big issue - the non-secular image of the government. On this score, he believes Modi has a lot to answer for.

But this is the actual score of Modi with his strongest critic: 4/5. On bringing back hopes of economic revival, on toilets and women’s safety, on NREGA, petro-subsidies, and on food security, Sen is more or less on the same page as Modi.

What a turnaround. Now, if only Modi could gag those extreme voices from the fringe of the parivar. Sen may never become a Modi-bakht, but he no longer considers him public enemy No 1.