Chinese mouthpiece slams BJP for being critical of Amartya Sen

BEIJING: Chinese state-controlled Global Times has slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party for being critical of a book, co-authored by Amartya Sen, with one of the party leaders recently demanding that the Nobel laureate be stripped of the Bharat Ratna.

"Unfortunately, the nationalist right in India has no guts to face its shortcomings," the Communist Party-owned paper said in an editorial. "The book has stirred disapproval and censure," it said referring to BJP MP Chandan Mitra's demand that Sen be stripped of his Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian reward.

In the book, "An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions", Sen and Jean Dreze try to find out what is holding India back. "It is incisive, straightforward, and organized in an intelligent and passionate way ... The authors are eager to find the way forward for a country they both love," the paper said.

"Attempts to rebut the book from the right have been limited to hysterical nationalism and crude attacks," the paper said while praising it for exposing the real conditions in India, where 43 per cent of children under the age of five are underweight.