Lok Sabha Results Signal Rejection Of 'Hindu Rashtra' Idea: Economist Amartya Sen Jabs BJP

Nobel laureate and economist Amartya Sen on Wednesday said that the Lok Sabha election results proves that India is not a 'Hindu Rashtra'.

According to him, there arises a need to be "politically open-minded", especially when India is a secular country with a secular Constitution.

"I do not think the idea of turning India into a 'Hindu Rashtra' is appropriate... That India is not a 'Hindu Rashtra' only has been reflected in the election results," Sen told a Bengali news channel at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, as quoted by PTI.

In the recent general elections, the BJP won 240 seats and emerged as the single largest party, but the saffron party did not reach the majority of 272 seats in the 543-seat Lok Sabha.

This meant the BJP needed support from its allies - N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) - to form the government. The Congress secured 99 seats, while the INDIA bloc of opposition parties won 234 seats.

"We always hope to see a change after every election...Some of what happened earlier (during the BJP-led central government), like putting people behind bars without trial and widening the gap between the rich and poor, are continuing. That must stop," he said, recalling that during his childhood - when India was under British rule - people were jailed without any trial, like "my uncles and cousins were put in jail without trial. We had hoped that India would be free from this. Congress is also to blame for the fact that this did not stop. They didn't change it... But, this is more in practice under the present government," he added.

Sen thinks the BJP losing the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat shows people might reject the party's focus on the Hindu identity for India. "Building the Ram Temple spending so much money... to portray India as a 'Hindu Rashtra', which should not have happened in the country of Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. It shows an attempt to neglect India's true identity, and it must change," he declared.