Dr Amartya Sen expresses disappointment over Left parties

Mumbai, Aug 13 (UNI) Nobel Laureate Dr Amartya Sen has said the Left parties' withdrawal of support to the government on the nuclear deal was an ineffective policy and was not reason able enough to pull the government down.

''I agree nuclear power is very important but I wouldn't think that it's a life and death issue. I think one possibility for the Left could have been to vote against it and not pull the government down. It certainly is a case that the Left has lost its voice,'' Dr Sen said in an interview to NDTV.

According to him, the Left is over-estimating the United States.

''If there is one place that the US government gets real respect from, its from the Left that they are so powerful that we need to be wary of them. Mostly people tend to think of them as paper tigers,'' a release issued by NDTV said.

Dr Sen emphasised that he expected the Left to play a bigger role than it is at present. ''Since I see myself as a part of the Left, I expect the Left to have a somewhat bigger role than what it has had in keeping its eye on the prize. And the prize is to remove the massive deprivation of the poorest in India,'' Dr Sen said.

Elaborating his views on the nuclear deal, Dr Sen said, ''I am in favour of complete nuclear disarmament of the entire world. I don't like nuclear bombs at all. I know this deal is about power, but the deal is relatively a minor theme in a larger story. I don't think I would have regarded it to be as important as it has been made out to be and also the possibilities of terrorism are very large with that.'' UNI JM SR SP UCS2148