“Things have gone pretty badly wrong… It has taken a quantum jump in the wrong direction since 2014. We are getting backwards in the fastest-growing economy” – Amratya Sen.
Healthcare scheme Ayushman – Bharat is a hoax – Jean Dreze.
Renowned economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen criticised the BJP-led central government on Sunday while propounding that the country has taken a “quantum jump in the wrong direction” since 2014. “Things have gone pretty badly wrong… It has taken a quantum jump in the wrong direction since 2014. We are getting backwards in the fastest-growing economy,” Sen said.
The economist made this statement while speaking at the launch of ‘Bharat Aur Uske Virodhabhas’, which happens to be the Hindi edition of his book ‘An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradiction’ that he has co-authored with another famous development economist Jean Dreze.
With the economy on a downslide, Sen said, the country is now second worst in the subcontinent region. Of the six countries in the region–India was the second best after Sri Lanka 20 years ago. “Now, it is the second worst. Pakistan has managed to shield us from being the worst.”
Sen further added the government has also deflected from issues of inequalities and the caste system, indicating that there were a whole group of people who clean lavatories or sewage with their hands whose demands and needs have been neglected.
Narrating the recent incident of a Dalit youth who was whipped for demanding a hike in his salary from the manager of a petrol pump in Madhya Pradesh, Sen said the dalits are going around without any kind of certainty about their next meal, healthcare or education.
Taking a dig at Modi’s ambitious healthcare scheme–Ayushmann Bharat, development economist propounding that the country has taken a “quantum jump in the wrong direction” since 2014. “Things have gone pretty badly wrong… It has taken a quantum jump in the wrong direction since 2014. We are getting backwards in the fastest-growing economy,” Sen said.
It is projected as health insurance for 50 crore people, but it is virtually nothing, said Dreze. Interestingly, Dreze helped in drafting the first version of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA).
