Rajya Sabha member Chandan Mitra's demand for stripping economist Amartya Sen of the Bharat Ratna today triggered a slugfest with parties attacking BJP and the Nobel laureate offering to return the award if Atal Bihari Vajpayee asks him to do so.
However, an unfazed Sen stuck to his views that he does not want Narendra Modi as Prime Minister and said he would not "surrender his right to speak his mind" as an individual just because he is a Bharat Ratna. He said his reservations were over Gujarat Chief Minister and not BJP.
"Do I regret my views on Modi. No. By getting Bharat Ratna, I do not lose my right to speak my views as an individual.
"It is my right to speak up. I thought it was my duty to stand and speak up for the majority. I got Bharat Ratna but...," the noted economist said as a controversy raged on Mitra's demand that NDA, which had conferred Bharat Ratna on him, should take it away when it comes to power.
"Bharat Ratna is a jewel of the whole country. No BR should speak for or against any party or leader. Sen should join Congress political team," Mitra had said on Twitter on Tuesday.
Mitra, himself, declined to comment any further today while his party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Bharat Ratna debate was unfortunate. She and another senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi said it was Mitra's personal opinion. Another leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy said Sen's views on Modi were not acceptable.
Congress waded into the row attacking the BJP for its "fascist mentality".
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari hit out at the BJP for its attack on Sen saying it was "regrettable" that BJP resorted not only to the "ignominy" of asking Sen to return the Bharat Ratna, something that happened for the first time, but some of its spokespersons also sought return of his Nobel prize.
