Will be delighted if Left regards me as a comrade: Amartya

“There is no such thing as perfect justice; that justice is relative to a situation; and that instead of searching for ideal justice,the stress should be on removing the more visible forms of injustice such as subjugation of women,poverty and malnutrition,” Sen said.

Speaking about his new book,’The Idea of Justice,’ and answering queries from the gathering at the London School of Economics,Sen said notwithstanding his criticism of the Indian Left on their stand on the India-US nuclear deal,he wanted them to regard him as a friend.

“I am on Left and if Left want me I’m delighted,” he said. Sen said he was criticised by the Left in India for questioning their fury over the nuclear deal when,”there were more pressing issues such as poverty and malnutrition to be furious about.”

Citing an example on the issue of justice,Sen said “If the U S President Barack Obama is able to push through his healthcare reforms,it will mean removing a massive manifest injustice that affected more than 40 million Americans who did not have access to health.

This is a far more effective approach to fighting injustice than getting bogged down in the idea of institutional justice – the belief that once just institutions are created justice would follow.”

An accomplished mathematician,a brilliant economist and now a giant of contemporary philosophy,Sen has worked for the UN on human development.

Democracy,especially in the shape of public argument and debate,plays a key role in Sen’s latest work. Public reasoning is the “primary hero” of The Idea of Justice. It is up to individuals to determine their own course through life,based on their own reasoning and reflection – in this sense Sen is an indefatigable liberal – but the tackling of injustice and the shaping of progress rely on a constant,engaged public conversation.

For Sen,democracy is not,at heart,a set of institutions and rules. “The working of democratic institutions,like that of all other institutions,” he writes,”depends on the activities of human agents.”