Bengaluru: A week or so after being conferred the Nobel Prize for his outstanding work in Economics, Abhijit Banerjee met PM Modi today (October 22). 

The meet was being closely watched with Abhijit having openly expressed his dissent over policies like demonetisation. 

As the two met, it is reported that Modi joked with him about how the media was trapping him into saying ‘anti-Modi’ things. 

Moments after he came out and met the media, he said, ““He has been watching TV, he has been watching you guys, he knows what you are trying to do. So stop.”

Banerjee spent quite a lot of time with the PM. He said, “PM talked a lot about his way of thinking about India which was quite unique. He spoke about the way in which he sees governance in particular and why sometimes the mistrust of people on the ground, colours the governance. It, therefore, creates structures of elite control over the governance process.”

 

Modi too shared his views on twitter. He wrote, “Excellent meeting with Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee. His passion towards human empowerment is clearly visible. We had a healthy and extensive interaction on various subjects. India is proud of his accomplishments. Wishing him the very best for his future endeavours.”

 

Banerjee, his wife Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer were jointly awarded the 2019 Nobel prize in Economics for their work related to alleviating poverty.
Interestingly, Piyush Goyal, a Union minister had taken a jibe at Banerjee after congratulating him for the award. 

He had said, “His thinking is totally Left-leaning and people of India have totally rejected his thinking.” 

To this, Banerjee had replied in an interview to NDTV thus, “I feel what’s not helpful in that kind of comment is more the questioning of my profession or our professionalism. I think the reason we were given this prize is partly because we are professionals.”