We differ and argue, but I respect his scholarship, says Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee's mother

Rejecting the notion about their inspiration in the life charted by Abhijit Banerjee, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics along with his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer , Nirmala Banerjee said she feels no one can inspire a person and all that her son achieved in life came out from himself.

"I don't think anybody can inspire. It comes out from oneself. I think our parenthood was more like living our life which he saw. It wasn't a kind of instructions-based parenthood," Nirmala Banerjee said.

The city of Kolkata was seen celebrating since Monday,  after Abhijit Banerjee, who is an American citizen now but is a Mumbai-born Indian, became the third Bengali to win a Nobel Prize and this time in Economics “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”.

Along with Abhijit Banerjee, his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer have also been awarded the Nobel in the same category. Earlier economist Amartya Sen had won the prize in 1998.

In one of his first responses, Abhijit Banerjee, who is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), expressed despair over the economic slowdown in India reminding his previous criticisms of the economic policies and steps undertaken by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Abhijit Banerjee in this case has full support of his mother. When asked about whether she feels the same or not, Nirmala Banerjee said, "I think he is absolutely right. He has got the courage to say. So I hope more people come out and say that."

However, Nirmala Banerjee did not shy away from admitting that she and her son also differ on a number of subjects. "None of us try to be nice to one another by not saying what we believe. So we have arguments. But on the whole, I respect his scholarship," she said.

Abhijit Banerjee, who is expected to arrive in Kolkata on Oct 23, was born in Mumbai but attended South Point School and Presidency College in Kolkata. Later, he completed his M.A. in economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi in 1983. He went on to obtain a Ph.D. in economics at Harvard in 1988.

Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee (From L to R)

"As a student he was not wonderful  who used to come first every time," divulged Nirmala Banerjee adding, "He was always good at Mathematics. His school never complained against him except for his bad handwriting. But I have really very bad handwriting so I couldn't really correct."

Nirmala Banerjee also expressed a bit of disappointment upon India's stiff resistance to providing dual citizenship to Indians outside which her son does not enjoy unlike her daughter-in-law Esther, who is from France.

When asked about why Abhijit Banerjee took up the US citizenship only in 2017 and not before, his mother said, " He always wanted to be in India. He only took the US citizenship because Donald Trump (US President) was then coming up with a new rule. But his family is in the US. So he didn't want to lose them."

"He didn't want to miss his family. India is one country which does not allow dual citizenship. For example, Esther (Esther Duflo) has French as well as US citizenship. I don't know for what reason India has resisted dual citizenship."

(Main Image: Avishek Mitra/IBNS)