Nitish slams BJP on Amartya Sen remark

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Friday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the demand by a BJP MP that the Bharat Ratna be taken back from noted economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

"This just makes it clear that the decision of parting ways with the BJP was totally correct. What kind of thinking do they have," Nitish Kumar told reporters here.

Sen had Monday said that he did not want to see Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the prime minister of the country as Modi did not have secular credentials.

Responding to this, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra Wednesday tweeted that the next National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government should strip Sen of the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, for the economist's comments slamming Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

"Does it mean there is no freedom of speech in this country? Though they are not going to get a chance (of coming to power), but suppose they do... is this the thinking with which they claim they will provide leadership and take the nation forward," the Bihar Chief Minister asked.

"This line of thought can only take the nation backward. People have rejected this line of thought, and will keep rejecting it."

The BJP has distanced itself from Mitra's comment saying it was his "personal opinion".