Don’t expect anti-Modi comments from me, quips Abhijit Banerjee after meeting PM

‘Modi started by joking on how media is trying to trap me to say anti-Modi things. He’s been watching TV and he’s been watching you guys. And he knows what you are trying to do,’ said Abhijit Banerjee

Photo courtesy: Social media
Photo courtesy: Social media
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NH Web Desk

Economist and Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, addressing the media after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday said he would not get into controversial statements because he had been warned by the Prime Minister.

"I had a cordial and good meeting. PM Modi started by cracking a joke on how media is trying to trap me to say anti-Modi things... He's been watching the TV and he's been watching you guys. And he knows what you are trying to do," said Abhijit Banerjee.

Abhijeet was asked by reporters about his meeting with the Prime Minister which took place against the backdrop of a debate over his comments on an economic slump.


The Nobel Laureate also said that the banking crisis "is critical and frightening". He shares the 2019 Economics Nobel with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer.

"The crisis is critical and frightening and we should worry about it. We need some important and aggressive changes," he said.

Slamming the Central Vigilance Commission, Banerjee said the government's stake in public sector banks (PSBs) should be reduced to less than 50 per cent so that the vigilance body did not regulate and "interfere" with the banks. "Checks and balances are required but (the CVC) is spoiling and allowing a rot in public sector banks and making them further lend until it collapses."

He refused to respond to a question on India's low ranking on the Human Development Index and said, “I have had no contribution to the HDI and it is doing quite okay without me. So, I don't want to get into something I am not involved in."

Earlier, just after the meeting, he had said that the PM talked about his way of thinking about India. "The PM was kind enough to give me quite a lot of time and to talk a lot about his way of thinking about India, which was quite unique. Because one hears about policies but one rarely hears about the thinking behind them," he said.


Right from Abhijit Banerjee’s ‘jhola’ to comments on what PM Modi said to him about media here is how Twitterati reacted:


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