Speakers at a discussion to pay tribute to Nobel laureate and economist Amartya Sen have said all of his works are devoted to the 'welfare of the common man'.
Mr Sen believes good quality of development does not come without democracy, human rights and freedom of speech in place, according to them.
He prefers a liberal democratic system to an authoritarian regime and thinks that it is a substitute for development.
The observations were made at a public lecture styled 'Amartya Sen: The Lion Who Defied Winter-A Personal Tribute on His 90th Birthday' hosted by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) on Thursday.
Planning minister MA Mannan and Centre for Policy Dialogue chairman Prof Rehman Sobhan spoke as the chief guest and the special guest respectively.
Prof Sen had to cope with such a hostile political climate in India in his last years, lamented the speakers.
Mr Mannan said Prof Sen was not only an economist, but also a philosopher in practice.
Professor Rehman Sobhan, also a friend of Prof Sen, said his major works were focused on human development, poverty and social injustice.
Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud said Prof Sen praised the quality of education and health care in some autocratic countries, but he still emphasised human rights and freedom of speech.
According to the economist, the main target of Prof Sen is to show how economics can be used for the welfare of human beings.
Prof SR Osmani of development economics at the University of Ulster said Prof Sen showed how economics and ethics could be combined.
BIDS director general Binayak Sen said there was an adequate opportunity to follow the combination of ethics and economics in Bangladesh.
Nazrul Islam, former chief economist of the United Nation's Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA, gave a public lecture on Prof Sen's work.
Prof Sen drew people's attention to the fact that it was necessary to go beyond income and consider the capability of individuals, he said.
He believes that the goal of development is to enable people to have the freedom to realise their potential by doing activities that are necessary to this end.
Prof Sen's activism did not remain confined to the realm of theory. He took an open stance against communal thoughts, policies and measures of the Modi government.
Mr Islam said the Nobel laureate had a deep understanding of Indian society and culture as multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-religious.
"He was, therefore, pained by the recent efforts at negating this historical fact and imposing the pseudo-theory of Hindutva that is divisive and alienating."
He saw in these efforts another example of politically manufactured aggravation of conflict through the absolutisation of one dimension of the Indian identity, namely religion.
"The economist includes moral principles in the discipline significantly," concluded Mr Islam.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
