Has Amartya Sen rejected Mamata Banerjee’s award over Partha Chatterjee? Family clarifies
1 min read . Updated: 25 Jul 2022, 12:04 PM IST
PremiumThere are wide-range speculations that Amartya Sen has rejected Mamata Banerjee’s award over a scam involving TMC veteran Partha Chatterjee.
There are wide-range speculations across a section of media that Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has rejected West Bengal government’s award over a scam involving TMC veteran Partha Chatterjee. Now, Sen’s family has clarified why the legendary economist won’t receive the ‘Bangabibhusan’, the highest civilian award conferred by the Mamata Banerjee government.
Amartya Sen is supposed to receive the award conferred by the West Bengal government, during an event scheduled to be held on Monday. However, Sen is believed to have informed state government representatives in the first week of July when he was contacted that he would not be in India at the time of the presentation event. It will take place in Kolkata during the day.
“He is presently in Europe," a family member told PTI.
When asked if the arrest of the key TMC minister for alleged involvement in a school jobs scam had anything to do with the decision (as CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty claimed), the family said the octogenarian had informed the organisers prior to any such developments that he would be unavailable.
“He has had the good fortune of being honoured with several awards, and wants the ‘Bangabibhusan’ to be conferred on others now," the celebrated economist’s daughter Antara Dev Sen told a local news channel.
Meanwhile, West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, arrested in connection with an alleged school jobs scam, was on Monday flown to Odisha capital Bhubaneswar in an air ambulance by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as per direction of the Calcutta High Court, an official of the agency said.
The court on July 24 directed the ED, which had arrested Chatterjee in connection with its probe into the alleged scam, to take to AIIMS Bhubaneswar early on Monday by air ambulance.
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"He has been taken to Bhubaneswar in an air ambulance as per the Calcutta High Court direction," an ED official said.
“Our officials are ready in Odisha airport to receive him," he added. Chatterjee was taken to the Kolkata airport in an ambulance earlier in the day from state-run SSKM hospital, where he was undergoing treatment.
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A green corridor was created so that he could reach the airport here in around 30 minutes, a Kolkata Police official said.
(With PTI inputs)
