Dilip Ghosh sticks to his comments against Amartya Sen

Unperturbed by the severe criticism of his attack on Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Dilip Ghosh on Monday said he was not demeaning someone by his remarks and stood by his comments questioning the economist's contribution towards the state and country.

"The subject on which I commented was not in order to demean someone. I was talking about the condition of Bengal and its education," Ghosh said.

He added that his remark was for all those intellectuals in Bengal and where Bengal's future is heading.

"The University vice-chancellors do not outstay for a year, school and college principals just give up and leave. The educational institutions are for developing the society but here they are becoming hubs for hooliganism. If there are no schools and colleges then where will we get our next Amartya Sen and Satyajit Ray," he said.

Ghosh further said that on these issues no voice is to be heard from them.

"Are they scared? Amartya Sen is one of the intellectuals from Bengal, therefore I asked why is he silent. Isn't this his responsibility as well?" he added.

Condemning Ghosh's comment on Amartya Sen, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Manas Bhunia said that such comment has denigrated the richness of Bengal.

"This has not only hurt me, but it has denigrated the cultural heritage and richness of Bengal. I am really astonished that how a state president of BJP could use this sort of language against highly respected Amartya Sen, who is not only respected in India but he is an eminent personality of the economic world," Bhunia said.

He added that it is unfortunate that a man like Ghosh, who claims to be a symbol of BJP, his version and utterance is the reflection of the culture of his own party or of his own individuality.

On being told that Ghosh denied directly hitting on Amartya Sen, Bhunia said, "He categorically mentioned the question of Nobel Prize. In recent times in Bengal, other than Rabindranath Tagore, Amartya Sen is the recipient of the award. May be someday he would say that Rabindranath Tagore was not up to the mark to have received the Nobel Laureate".

Ghosh while addressing an event in Kolkata has launched an all-out attack against Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, calling him "spineless" and "characterless."

"One Bengali among us has won the Nobel Prize and we are proud. We celebrated for him. But what has he done for the state? What has he given to the nation? No one in Bengal understands him. He himself doesn't understand what he is. He is in extreme pain because he was removed as the chancellor of Nalanda University. Such people are spineless, characterless and they can be purchased or sold," Ghosh said.

The leader also hit out at "intellectuals" in the state of "cosying up" to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee.

While Dilip Ghosh's comment has triggered massive criticism, the renowned economist, however, said he has "no objection to the criticism".