New Delhi: Renowned economist and NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy believes that intolerance in academic circles always existed in India and it was practiced by left-wing circuits having state patronage.
In an exclusive interview to indiatvnews.com, Bibek Debroy said,” So far as ‘intolerance' in academic circle is concerned, it has always existed except that it was being practiced by a certain left-wing kind of a circuit that traditionally thrived on the basis of state patronage, government patronage. Now that circuit is feeling unhappy because its monopoly on that patronage is being contested.
To corroborate his argument, Debroy cites three glaring examples of intolerance in academic circles – book bans, treatment meted out to Dr Shenoy and Dr Jagdish Bhagwati .
“No book has been banned since this government came into power in May 2014. Most book bans were actually during Congress governments. And I mentioned one particular book which is the ‘Heart of India' by Alexander Campbell published in 1958. It had no pornography, no obscenity. The only reason it was banned because it was critical of Jawaharlal Nehru and his brand of socialism,” Debroy said.
Bibek Debroy also pointed how Dr Shenoy and Dr Jagdish Bhagwati were forced out of India just because they had advocated an alternative economic philosophy which did not suit the government of the day and the left-wing intelligentsia.
“Dr Shenoy who was part of a task-force set up by the former Planning Commission in the course of second Five-Year Plan. There were 22 economists in that and 21 of them endorsed the views that the government was pushing through in Five-Year Plan document. Dr Shenoy disagreed and he produced a minute of dissent. He was ostracised and he was never given a job anywhere in India so eventually he had to look for a job in Ceylon i.e. Sri Lanka,” Debroy pointed out.
“Similarly, Dr Jagdish Bhagwati's life was made very difficult when he was here at Delhi School of Economics. Jagdish Bhagwati, as well as Padma Desai, thereafter went off abroad,” he added.
Bibek Debroy further pointed out that there was a definite political motive behind the recent ‘intolerance' debate in India which suddenly came to an end after the defeat of BJP in Bihar Assembly elections.
“There is no factual evidence, and anecdotes are no evidence, to suggest that intolerance, however defined, has increased since May 2014. No one will be able to demonstrate that,” Debroy said.
Watch Video of Bibek Debroy Interview (indiatvnews.com Exclusive):
