Amartya Sen: Difficult to wipe out separatist violence but need like-minded people to come together

Kolkata: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Monday said that while it was difficult to eliminate separatist forces, all right thinking people should use their might to wipe them out. “You cannot altogether eliminate separatist forces. There had been efforts to create disturbances even in the 50s but then people came together to fight these forces with their might,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_3799093” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. AFP[/caption] When asked about the rise of the separatist movement in Darjeeling and the communal flare-up in Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district, Sen said, “We need similar initiatives by you, me, politicians, intellectuals to wipe out separatist elements.” “Why suddenly unthinkable things are taking place in Bengal?” he asked. “People would be killing each other without knowing each other just because they belong to different communities. This is not just done. Similar things happened in the 1950s and in late 40s,” Sen said. He said that going by the reports he has heard about the current communal flare-up in Bengal, he thought “it is not the worst kind of situation but it is bad.” “I am of the opinion that there can be some possibility of instigation from this or that side in a communal clash,” he said. Sen complimented the media for their role in reporting the communal clashes and hailed television debates on the issues. He said that he was not in a position to comment on the Darjeeling agitation as he did not have adequate information. To the question about the BJP’s demand for imposition Article 356 in Bengal, Sen said, “I can’t comment on that as well.” The Nobel laureate was talking to the media on the sidelines of the screening of a documentary film on his works by director-economist Suman Ghosh.