We are all truly privileged that we have gathered here today to pay tribute to the memory of one of our most distinguished parliamentarians. Prof Hirendranath Mukherjee was a great parliamentarian, a distinguished scholar and a rare communist who was also a true liberal. He combined in himself all the liberal instincts of a renaissance man and the passionate fervour of a communist revolutionary.
It is not often that one comes across a ‘liberal revolutionary’. Some might regard that description an oxymoron. Can a revolutionary be a liberal? But that is precisely what Professor Hiren Mukherjee was.
I am, therefore, delighted that a lecture in his memory is being delivered by another great son of Bengal and a product of Bengali Renaissance, my friend Amartya. We are also privileged that this lecture is being delivered in the presence of a true inheritor of the legacy of Hiren Mukherjee, our distinguished Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee. This evening, therefore, is a truly remarkable one.
Hiren Mukherjee was known to have observed once, and I quote, “Politics fundamentally speaking calls for passion in its pursuit. A passion in Latin has for its first meaning ‘suffering’, which none in true political life should wish to escape.”
I am, therefore, particularly delighted that today’s lecture in memory of Hiren Mukherjee is being delivered by Amartya Sen. Amartya has dedicated his professional life seeking an answer, like the Great Buddha himself, to human suffering. It is this combination of a deep and abiding commitment to the welfare and well-being of our people and, at the same time, to the fundamental principles of liberal democracy that elevate Amartya’s work.
It is at a time when extreme dogmatism and fundamentalism are seeking to weaken the fabric and framework of liberalism that we value most the intellectual contribution of scholars like Amartya Sen. Over the years, I have come to value this aspect of Amartya’s work. The policies and principles of our government, as indeed the intellectual inspiration for the National Common Minimum Programme, are drawn from the world view that Amartya Sen has come to represent so eloquently.
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This world view is captured by what our government has defined as “inclusive growth”. Amartya has been a passionate advocate of inclusive growth through most of his professional life. What we are trying to do in the government is to give concrete shape to those ideas of what I would call ‘growth with a human face’ or ‘growth with social justice’. These ideas and ideals had inspired our national movement, and they continue to inspire those of us who occupy the “centre” space in Indian politics, and walk the “middle path” on social, political and economic issues.
I am sure that the subject of today’s lecture, as well as the choice of the person delivering that lecture, would have been heartily approved by the Late Prof Hiren Mukherjee. Hiren Mukherjee was both a respected communist and an admired parliamentarian. I sincerely hope the new generation of our parliamentarians will study the life and contribution of leaders like Hiren Mukherjee and derive inspiration from it.
Here was a man whose politics was shaped by his commitment to overthrow what he regarded as “bourgeois democracy”, and yet who came to represent the finest traditions of our parliamentary democracy. It is leaders like him that have given hope to millions of our countrymen and strengthened the foundations of our democracy. Today, India stands as a shining example of a poor country seeking its economic and social salvation within the framework of a liberal and secular democracy.
Excerpts from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s address at the Hiren Mukherjee Memorial lecture, August 11, 2008, in the Central Hall of Parliament