Describing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as a man who has “significantly gained maturity” over the years, Nobel laureate economist Professor Amartya Sen felt the leader’s true test would be how he led the Opposition in Parliament during the current regime of Narendra Modi-led NDA government.The nonagenarian also opined that Rahul’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ has not only shaped him as a national leader but also enriched the country’s political landscape.
Talking to PTI in an exclusive interview at his ancestral residence in Bolpur in West Bengal’s Birbhum district, Sen recollected how Rahul, as a student at Trinity College in Cambridge, was unsure about “what he wanted to do” in life given that “politics never quite appealed to him then”.
I think he (Rahul) is a much more mature person (now). I knew him as a young man during his days at Trinity College… the college where I studied and later became its Master. He (Rahul) visited me at that time and he came across as someone who was unclear about what he wanted to do. Politics didn’t seem to appeal to him then,” Sen recollected.
The Bharat Ratna awardee said that the young Congress leader may have faced some difficulty during his initial days in politics, but he has evolved over the years and his recent performance was “extraordinarily good”.
“Then he (Rahul) forayed into politics and I think initially he had some difficulty finding his feet. But his recent performance has been quite extraordinarily good and I am very admiring of that. Of course, you can’t be fighting elections based on your qualities alone, it also depends on what the country is like,” he stated.