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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, JAN 5: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Tuesday met Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and his wife Emma Rothschild who called on him at 7, Race Course Road.
The meeting, which was attended by Union Ministers Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Ananth Kumar, Planning Commission secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia and N K Singh, secretary in the PMO, saw Prof Sen empahising the role of education in the country8217;s development. Successive governments, according to the Nobel laureate, had neglected primary education, which had adversely affected human resources development in the country.
The Prime Minister responded positively to Prof Sen8217;s suggestions for revamping the education system at the grass-root level with the active involvement of parents, communities and panchayats.
Vajpayee kept up his promise of inviting the eminent economist on his return to the Capital. Refuting Vishwa Hindu Parishad VHP working president Ashok Singhal8217;s allegation that the conferment of the Nobel Prize on Prof Sen was a part of Christian conspiracy, the Prime Minister had said that he would meet him as soon he returned from his outstation engagements.
Prof Sen, during his meeting with Vajpayee this afternoon, also pointed out that even in the panchayati raj system, parents were not properly involved at the level of primary eduction.
Vajpayee concurred with his views and assured him that his government would look into this lacuna. Both of them were of the view that it was not resource-crunch which was the main obstacle, but need to manage available resources. Convinced with Prof Sen8217;s arguments, Vajpayee later told reporters that his Government would restore primacy to the primary education, but maintained that it was a collective task of both the Union and State governments to remove this drawback in the social sector.
During the course of the meeting, Civil Aviation Minister Ananth Kumar presented the Nobel laureate with lifetime complimentary first class travel passes for the Air-India and Indian Airlines.
After the Prime Minister presented the card of distinction8217; on behalf of the two national carriers, the Nobel winner remarked, albeit jokingly, that people had underestimated the frequency with which he could travel.
8220;I will definitely use it, from today itself,8221; Prof Sen said after receiving the cards. Air-India gave two photo identity cards 8211; one for first class and the other for the executive class 8211; specially designed for the occasion. There will be no restriction on the number of trips the Nobel laureate can undertake on the airlines, he was told by Kumar.
