The loyalists of right wing parties targeted Nobel laureate Amartya Sen after he criticised the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre and his replacement as the Chancellor of the Nalanda University.
In a recent interview, Prof. Sen lashed out at the Centre for interfering and exercising direct control over educational institutes. He further added that he was removed from the Nalanda University. “I was certainly ousted from Nalanda. Some members of the Board, especially the foreign members were keen on carrying on the battle for me but I stepped aside as I did not want to be an ineffective leader. The government may have held up finances or statutes had I continued,” Prof. Sen had said in the interview.
Reacting to Prof. Sen’s statements, people took to social media platforms to criticise him. Mr. Modi’s loyalists attacked the economist’s views on micro blogging website Twitter and went on to label him as a communist. Many people even questioned the whopping expenditure of Rs. 2,700 crore by the University and pointed fingers at him, blaming him of being involved in a scam. Another user uploaded a picture of the University, terming it as a ‘pigeonhole’ and wondered why it took 12 years and Rs. 2,727 crore for completion.
While, a Twitter user using the handle @KatochPrakash tweeted: “Not a squeak from Amartya Sen why he consistently refused audit of Nalanda University accounts”, another user using the handle @singh81arun wrote: “Hightime ED must summon Amartya Sen for his corruption in Nalanda University, he’s being paid in US dollar.”
Prof. Sen is expected to be replaced by former Foreign Minister of Singapore George Yeo.
Even ministers, too, did not lag behind in criticising Prof. Sen as Union Minister Giriraj Singh tweeted: “Bihar was the scariest victim of his [Prof. Sen’s] intellect.” Mr. Singh was participating in a conversation on the site in which actor Shabana Azmi spoke out in favour of the economist, crossing swords with a journalist who labelled him as a “full blown and sanctimonious hypocrite”.
