Shinde backs Amartya Sen, says 'wrong to make comments of taking back 'Bharat Ratna'

Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Thursday voiced his support for Nobel laureate and renowned economist Amartya Sen's criticism of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, saying he has said what he felt is correct.

Shinde said it is extremely incorrect to make comments demanding that the 'Bharat Ratna' given to him be taken back.

"Amartya Sen has said what is right. He is one of the great economists of the world and it's wrong to say like this. He has just expressed his opinion, which he feels is correct," he told the media here.

Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra had earlier in a television interview suggested that Amartya Sen be stripped off the Bharat Ratna.

"Amartya Sen says he doesn't want Modi to be India's PM. Is Sen even a voter in India? Next NDA government must strip him of Bharat Ratna," he said during an interview to CNN-IBN.

Sen had earlier this week told a television channel during an interview that Narendra Modi could have done more for Gujarat's education, health and for secularism, instead of focusing solely on physical infrastructure development in that state.

Referring to Modi, Sen said "I think I would like a more secular person to be Prime Minister. I would not like a Prime Minister who generates concern and fear among minorities. That is the primary reason. I am in favour of someone who looks at social administration and not just business administration seriously. That doesn't mean that I don't see what he has done and why people admire him."

Sen went a step further in saying that as an economist he didn't approve of the 'Modi model' of governance saying, "I don't think the record is very good. I don't have to be a member of the minority in order to feel insecure. I could be a member of the majority."

"We Indians don't want a situation where the minority feel insecure and could legitimately think that there was an organised violence against them in 2002. I think that is a terrible record and I don't think Indian Prime Minister as an Indian citizen ... of who has that kind of record. No, I do not," he said.