Amartya Sen on women's representation bill!

Dr Amartya Sen is neither a politician nor a bureaucrat. He is an economist renowned for writing books that reveal his passion for equality, empowerment and justice. So when you walk up to him and ask him for his views on the women's representation bill the last thing you expect is: "I am not going to talk about reservation."

Moments back, Dr Sen was elaborating on the 'idea of justice' and how underdogs may seek power not so much to use them over others but so that others don't use it over them. So what aspect of justice is covered or left uncovered with the women's representation bill? I wonder how and why would a question, which is about a choice being made by a society, not excite an economist who is otherwise ready to dissect everything.

Dr Sen has insisted that it is far more important to remove remedial injustices rather than clamouring for a perfectly just society. Dr Sen, I would have relished your thoughts on whether the women's reservation bill is a step towards removing the remedial injustices or an example of India trying to be a just society.

In a packed auditorium in central London, the Nobel laureate mesmerised the crowd that had gathered to hear him at the Demos Annual Lecture with his forthright statements; In the Doha round India, China and Brazil acted to serve their interest and not Africa. It is wrong to think that the West is more materialistic. Mohen-jo Daro and the whole Indus valley civilisation revealed business, money and commerce. Among the members of the audience were British MPs, academicians, economists and PhD students - each of them interested in Amartyanomics.

Dr Sen's talk had much on India as well. The Bharat Ratna awardee lamented that the IITs do not get enough credit in India and that Nehru made a mistake by not focussing on primary education. He also shared his insights on primary education in India. "It is a great tragedy as many parents have not been to primary school." Private tuitions are costly in India and kids struggle to get their 'home task' done.

Dr Sen was delighted to field a question on the India caste-system which the questioner claimed had read about from a book written by his grandfather. As he smiled hearing the question, I realised how frail he was. His mug shots and video images do not give much of an idea about how old he is. His answers though clearly reflected how young he is at heart.

Dr Sen reasoned that people fear freedom in their own lives. “Freedom has many aspects. Those who are afraid of freedom are afraid of others - discontented masses, disgruntled feminists.”

He just stopped short of saying that Tata is the only group (in India) interested in philanthropic activities as compared to others. “Others might be richer than the head of Tata but their philanthropic activities are not huge,” he said.

While I do not know whether the other business groups will bother to reflect on what Dr Sen has to say, but if he articulates on the women’s representation bill it will give enough food for thought to the intelligentsia in India. The idea of justice or injustice will be more clear.