Nobel laureate Amartya Sen will not receive the ‘Bangabibhusan’, the highest civilian award conferred by the West Bengal government, during an event scheduled to be held on Monday, his family said.
Sen is understood to have told state government officials in the first week of July when approached, that he will not be in India when the presentation ceremony takes place. It is scheduled to be held in Kolkata during the day.
“He is presently in Europe,” a family member told PTI.
Asked if the decision had anything to do with the appeal by CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty to the prospective recipients, including Sen, to not receive the award from the TMC government, a key minister of which was arrested for alleged involvement in a school jobs scam, she said the octogenarian had intimated the organisers before any such developments took place that he will 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.