New Delhi: Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee has responded to Piyush Goyal‘s ‘totally left-leaning’ remark, saying said that the Union Railway and Commerce Minister is raising question on my professionalism. Earlier on Friday, Piyush Goyal trained his guns at Banerjee and had claimed that the Nobel prize winner’s ideology was rejected by people of India.
“Abhijit Banerjee won the Nobel prize, I congratulate him. But you all know what his understanding is. His thinking is totally Left-leaning. He had praised the NYAY scheme effusively, but the people of India totally rejected his thinking”, the senior BJP leader had said while addressing a press conference.
Speaking to a leading TV channel, Banerjee, when asked to comment on Goyal’s remark, said that he wants to be professional with everyone instead of being partisan.
“If the BJP government, like the Congress party, had asked what were the numbers on the fraction of people under a particular income, would I have not told them the truth? I would have told them exactly, I would have been as willing”, the Nobel laureate told NDTV.
Talking about the NYAY (poverty alleviation scheme) of Congress, Banerjee said that only Centre can implement such scheme as the states have their own limitations. Notably, Banerjee had helped Congress with the concept of NYAY, underwhich it had promised to provide Rs 72000 per year.
He also lauded Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Jan Dhan, Ayushman Bharat programmes and asserted that they are good ideas in the long run.
“While the Ayushman Bharat scheme in the long run will save the people, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana will help people in saving their money”, the JNU alumnus reportedly said.
Banerjee bagged the coveted prize jointly with his Esther Duflo and another economist Michael Kremer for his ‘experimental approach to alleviating global poverty’. He was in New Delhi yesterday and visited Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). He is expected to visit Kolkata on Tuesday.
For breaking news and live news updates, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Read more on Latest India News on India.com.
