No need to accept what Left-leaning Abhijit Banerjee thinks: Piyush Goyal
Union minister Piyush Goyal on Friday (October 18) dubbed Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee, who won the 2019 Nobel for Economics, as Left-leaning.
He said as his suggestion of basic income scheme was rejected by Indian voters, there was no need to “accept what he thinks”.
Also read: Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee was lodged in Tihar jail for 10 daysÂ
At a media briefing here, Goyal said, “I congratulate Abhijit Banerjee for winning the Nobel prize. You all know that his thinking is totally Left-leaning,” and added that, “Banerjee supported NYAY (poverty alleviation scheme of Congress) and people of India rejected his ideology.”
Banerjee recently said the Indian economy is on a shaky ground, adding data currently available does not hold any assurance for the country’s economic revival anytime soon.
The Union minister also added that it was a matter of pride that an Indian won the Nobel prize. “But it is not necessary to agree with what he says and especially when the people of this country rejected his suggestion, there is no need to accept what he thinks,” he said.
Also read: Nobel winner Abhijit Banerjee says India’s growth on shaky ground
Questioned whether he thought Banerjee’s views on the state of Indian Economy were biased, Goyal said the reporter should pose this question to Banerjee himself.
Earlier, Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy also criticised Abhijit Banerjee for conceptualising the NYAY scheme of the Congress.
Also read: Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Michael Kremer get Economics Nobel
Roy had tweeted on October 14, that he was proud of the achievements of Banerjee, who along with Esther Duflo, his French-American wife and Michael Kremer, another economist, has won the coveted prize for the ‘experimental approach to alleviating global poverty’.
The Meghalaya governor said, “I personally believe NYAY was a crazy and harebrained scheme. Even the progenitor of that scheme isn’t mentioning it any more. Thankfully Banerjee and Duflo did not get the prize for NYAY. I am told he got it for some good experimental work, not anything fundamental.”
Also read: Nobel laureates and their experimental economics
The NYAY or Nyuntam Aay Yojana is a minimum income guarantee scheme that headlined the Congress manifesto for the national election earlier this year. The party crashed in the polls. Rahul Gandhi, in his tweet congratulating Banerjee for his Nobel, credited him with the NYAY plan.
