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Union minister Piyush Goyal has caused a stir as he recently dubbed Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Banerjee as ‘Left-leaning’, and said as his suggestion of basic income scheme was rejected by Indian voters, there was no need to ‘accept what he thinks’.
Indian-American Banerjee, who has been critical of the Narendra Modi government’s economic policies, won the 2919 Nobel for economics.
He had endorsed Nyay, the minimum basic income scheme promised by the Congress during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
“I congratulate Abhijit Banerjee for winning the Nobel prize. You all know that his thinking is totally Left-leaning,” Goyal said at a media briefing in Pune.
“Banerjee supported ‘Nyay’ and people of India rejected his ideology,” Goyal said.
He added that it was a matter of pride that an Indian won the Nobel prize.
“But it is not necessary to agree with what he says and especially when the people of this country rejected his suggestion, there is no need to accept what he thinks,” the Union minister said.
