| NEWS NOTES AMARTYA SEN LAUDS CALCUTTA’S VIRTUES AND JOYS
 It was a different spectacle at the
Netaji Indoor Stadium in Calcutta on Sunday afternoon when the Left Front Government gave
a warm reception to the illustrious son of the soil, Professor Amartya Sen for receiving
the Nobel Prize in Economics this year. The city’s leading lights, - litterateurs,
economists, scientists, poets and politicians, artistes were all present in the stadium
tastefully decorated with the artist’s work of a façade of the city’s landmark
- Town Hall behind the podium on the floor. The Town Hall replica reminded another
historic event of according reception to another illustrious son of the soil - poet
Rabindranath Tagore also for having been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.
Replying to the felicitations, Professor Sen used the opportunity to elaborate on his
social choice theory in a nutshell though not before expressing his views about the city
of Calcutta which he described as one of astounding "vitality." Professor Sen is
aware that Calcutta is often identified with poverty. But to Professor Sen Calcutta is a
city of intellectual ingenuity, artistic imagination and political liveliness. It is an
extraordinary place of tolerance and creativity which combines its mature civilization
with the culture and understanding that each migrant brings to this great city.
Professor Sen opposed the "suspicious separatism" that is generated by panic-stricken cultural nationalists who are afraid of pollution from abroad. In his welcome address on this joyous occasion for West Bengal and India, Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu said Professor Sen had delved deep into the heart of welfare economics. Basu said that Professor Sen had worked hard to expound his theories on removing hunger, and ensuring education and health care for the common people. Basu also mentioned that the Left Front Government in West Bengal had initiated a time-bound literacy programme. He hoped to interact with Professor Sen in future on issues concerning amelioration of the sufferings of the common people. The Governor Mr. A.R. Kidwai offered felicitations to Professor Sen. He congratulated Professor Sen for being awarded the Nobel Prize. Mayor of Calcutta Corporation, Prasanta Chattopadhyaya read out the citation which he later handed over to Professor Sen as a memento and the speaker of the West Bengal Assembly Hashim Abdul Halim read out a resolution adopted in the State Assembly congratulating Professor Sen on his being awarded the Nobel Prize. Mementos were also handed over to Professor Sen on the occasion from different organisation besides those given by the government of West Bengal. Professor Sen said, it was social choice theory which provided the linkage between inequality, poverty and welfare economics. It certainly had been the connecting theme in his work. Shrugging off the "impossibility" theory of Mr. Kenneth Arrow and other economists Professor Sen concluded that certain basic rights can be accepted as something to which everyone should really be entitled. We can indeed aim at fulfilment of those rights without the necessity of further social welfare judgements. Of course the rights need not be defined in very limited ways. However, if the rights that are demanded for all, also include effective freedoms of various kinds of men and women - including freedom from hunger, from illiteracy, from lack of medical care, from social neglect and exclusion from long-term unemployment and so on, the approach can have a very basic appeal. Indeed these elementary freedoms and rights can provide a very broad understanding of the needs of social justice. On a personal plane, Professor announced that he would like to share the Nobel Prize money with a charity trust he wants to set up. The focus of the charity will be on education and health care. Earlier at a "Meet the Press" programme organised by the Calcutta Press Club
on the Maidan on Saturday, Professor Sen said instead of closing our eyes to developments
in the world outside, we should assimilate in your systems whatever is beneficial to us.
Even we can learn China too, Professor Sen said, In this connection he referred to land
reforms programmes implemented in West Bengal and the progress made in the sphere of
education in Kerala. It is policy of "give and take" that can be applicable to
all states. Professor Sen was asked if he was in favour of market economy. He said, one cannot ignore market economy although it was not the sole panacea for removing all social ills. The success of adoption of market economy, however, depended how as a whole, the government and the private sector and the society as a whole would behave in the changed reforms milieu. |
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