Sitharaman was my friend in JNU: Abhijit Banerjee

October 20, 2019 13:20

Indian-American Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, whose comments on the Indian economy has drawn criticism from the BJP, told NDTV that Union finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was his friend at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University and they shared similar views on several issues.

Asked about JNU's role in his training and his thoughts about the current noise about the university, Mr Banerjee termed the current situation "unfortunate".

"One of the people I knew well and we were on similar sides of certain issues was Nirmala Sitharaman.She was my contemporary in JNU... I wouldn't say we were close friends, but we were friends and it is not that we had deep disagreements".

The university, he said, was a place where a lot of people held different views and divergent opinions. "It was great because it makes you engaged with the nature of India in a deep way". Continuing, he said, "Being critical is one thing and being able to discuss with civility diverse views is another thing and both of these are important".

Banerjee's views about the Indian economy has not endeared him to the ruling BJP.

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