I don't want to see Modi as the PM in 2014: Amartya Sen

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has come out with perhaps the most vocal rejection of Narendra Modi as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 polls.

“I do not want to see him (Narendra Modi) as the prime minister in 2014,” Sen said while speaking to CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose on the show Face the People.

“I don’t approve of Narendra Modi’s model of governance. First, I don’t think (his) record (of development) is very good. I don’t have to be a member of the minority to feel insecure. I could be a member of the majority as an Indian citizen,” he said.

Sen, who is out with his new book An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions co-authored with Jean Dreze, said, “…Modi could have done a lot better. He could have been more secular. He could have made the minority community feel more secure.”

“Modi should take note of the fact that Gujarat’s record in healthcare and education is pretty bad and he ought to concentrate on that as much as he is rightly concentrating on physical infrastructure,” said the development economist, who has often come out in support of UPA’s flagship schemes like Food Security Bill and Right to Education.

Watch the full interview of Amartya Sen with Sagarika Ghose on CNN-IBN to be aired at 10.30 pm tonight.