Unity is important if the agitation is for a proper cause,” Sen said while answering journalists over the nationwide CAA-NPR-NRC protests
Kolkata: Days after demanding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) should be revoked, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Monday called for more unity in opposing the CAA, saying “if there is no unity, protests won’t work”.
“For any protest, opposition unity is significant. Then agitation becomes easier. Unity is important if the agitation is for a proper cause,” Sen said while answering journalists over the nationwide CAA-NPR-NRC protests.
“And even if unity is not there, then that doesn’t mean agitation should stop. Unity makes protest easier but if unity is not there still we have to move on and do whatever is required,” Sen said.
However, Sen said even in the absence of opposition unity, agitation can continue.
The noble laureate remarks came on a day when several big parties skipped a meeting of the Opposition to discuss the controversial law, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the ongoing protests in several parts of the nation.
Supporting Amartya Sen’s statement, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor tweeted, “Amartyaji is right. The problem is that the Opposition parties are agreed on national issues, but divided into many states. This is why it is difficult to assemble all of them on the same platform or front; they are interested to put their local interests first. So BJP wins w/ 37%.”
Speaking at Nabanita Deb Sen Memorial Lecture, Sen said looking at oppositional reasoning as quarrelsome would be a huge mistake. “It is also mandatory to highlight the subtleties of the innovative forces of the opposition. We need to know more about what I am agitating about. The head must also join with the heart in agitation,” Sen said while addressing.
“When there seems to be a major mistake in the Constitution or human rights, there will surely be reasons to protest,” Sen said.
Deb Sen, who passed away at her Kolkata house last November, was the economist’s first wife.
Sen, a few days ago, who has been critical of the Narendra Modi-led government, said the controversial CAA should be revoked.
“I think the CAA must be revoked because it cannot be called an Act. That’s the job of the apex Court to see whether what was passed in Parliament can be legally attached to the Constitution,” the economist had said.
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