There is a popular joke that God created economists to make weather forecasters look good. However, despite the amount of popular ridicule that economists and their models face in popular public discourse, especially in the aftermath of every major economic crisis, economists have contributed tremendously towards debates on crucial public policy issues that impact the lives of billions of people. India was witness to one such debate in the middle of 2013 as two prominent Indian-origin economists, Prof. Amartya Sen and Jagdish Bhagwati pushed their ideas regarding India’s development and growth through their latest books, newspaper columns and newsroom debates.
Jean Drèze’s book with Sen ‘An Uncertain Glory’ and Bhagwati’s book with Arvind Panagariya ‘India’s Tryst with Destiny’ brought an economic debate into our living rooms like never before. However, with the media’s inherent tendency to find binaries and simplifications, a lot of the intricacies of the debate presented in the respective books were lost to those who didn’t read them. While Sen came across as an anti-growth redistributionist, Bhagwati and Panagariya were portrayed as bigoted proponents of what has come to be known as the ‘Gujarat Model’, an economic system that apparently pushes the agenda of growth above all else. A close reading of the two books by this author has revealed that both these popular perceptions are incorrect, even in essence.
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