Amartya Sen and slandering by the Lie Manufacturing Machines: Yet Another Manufactured Lie Busted

[Sukla Sen]

[So, what follows is that Emma Rothschild, despite her last name, has no share in the Rothschild (financial) empire - no "heiress", by any stretch. 

Yet another Lie propagated by the Lie Manufacturing Machines gets busted.

Ref.: 'Strange saga of Amartya Sen and the Rothschilds' at <https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/strange-saga-amartya-sen-rothschilds>.

Also look up: 'The continuing crucifixion of Amartya Sen' by Santosh Paul at <https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/courts-commerce-and-the-constitution/the-continuing-crucifixion-of-amartya-sen/>.

<<Before he died in 1812, Mayer Rothschild left strict rules for his descendants on how they should handle the family’s finances. He wanted to keep the fortune within the family and, as such, encouraged the arrangement of marriages among relatives. According to an article published in the August 2003 issue of Discover magazine entitled “Go Ahead, Kiss Your Cousin,” “Mayer Amschel Rothschild arranged his affairs so that cousin marriages among his descendants were inevitable. ***His will barred female descendants from any direct inheritance*** [emphasis added]. Without an inheritance, female Rothschilds had few possible marriage partners of the same religion and suitable economic and social stature – except other Rothschilds. Rothschild brides bound the family together. Four of Mayer’s granddaughters married grandsons, and one married her uncle. These were hardly people whose mate choice was limited by the distance they could walk on their day off.”>>

(Excerpted from s. no. I. below.)

<< Why this article? Amartya Sen is a luminous star in the constellation of influential economists. He is anathema for India’s right wing not just for his steadfast views on  welfare economics but for his being  an ardent and vocal advocate of the Nehruvian worldview. Worse, he endorses the Kerala model of growth which for some mistaken reason is seen as wholly  the creation of the left ignoring substantial Congress rule in the state which contributed to it’s remaining on the top of the human index charts. These are ideas  antithetical to the intellectual dispensation trying to gain ascendancy. The trouble for his detractors is that Sen is far too intellectually equipped and has too many arrows in his quiver to be shredded by the run of the mill. So it is necessary to destroy his reputation by slander, innuendo or this  conjecture ridden analysis.

 The article communicates in great haste and urgency, that Amartya Sen is married to Emma Rothschild, “one  of the heiress  of the world’s wealthiest family.” What we are not told is that she is a British economic historian of repute and is currently serving as the Professor of History at the Harvard University. ...>>

(Excerpted from s. no. II. below.)

<<Amartya Sen has become hyperactive in attacking policies that benefit the people of India, but one fact he has been shy of disclosing during his attacks is his apparent conflict of interest by virtue of marrying (((Emma Rothschild, one of the heiresses of the world’s wealthiest family*** [emphasis added]. ...

The family business of Amartya Sen’s family on wife’s side, NM Rothschild & Sons, is seen as having made tremendous amounts of money during the United Progressive Alliance regime between 2004 and 2014, even as Sen’s blue-eyed-boy, Jean Dreze was a key member of Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council. The connection between Amartya Sen and his family’s business is not merely a tenuous one. On the contrary, Sen’s father-in-law himself, Nathaniel Mayer Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild, was part of the management of NM Rothschild & Sons. Victor’s cousin, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, owns a significant stake in the Economist magazine, which explains the magazine’s constant barbs against the Hindu community even as they support Sonia Gandhi and prop up Amartya Sen’s economic ideas.>>

(Excerpted from s. no. III. below.)]

I/III.

https://www.investopedia.com/updates/history-rothschild-family/

A History of the Rothschild Family

BY JENNIFER COOK   

Updated Feb 21, 2019

[CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article cited an estimate of the combined net worth of the Rothschilds at $350 billion. That estimate came from a source that does not meet Investopedia’s standards, and we have consequently retracted it. Similarly, an estimate that the Rothschilds controlled more than $2 trillion worth in assets was also inadequately sourced and retracted.]

The Rothschild Family

The Rothschilds, a prominent family originally from Germany, established banking and finance houses in Europe beginning in the 18th century. Pioneers in providing capital for business and financing infrastructure projects such as railways and the Suez Canal, the Rothschilds molded the way the international world of high finance works today.

The Rothschild empire had its genesis during the 1760s when Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) founded a banking business in his native Frankfurt, in the German duchy of Hesse. Over time, and with the help of his five sons, the family business expanded throughout several European countries.

Mayer Amschel Rothschild: The Founder

The Rothschilds’ empire had humble beginnings. Its founder, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, was born in 1744 and raised in Frankfurt’s Jewish ghetto. During that era, Jews were legally required to live in small communities that were separate from Christians. They were also not allowed to leave their villages at night, on Sundays or on Christian holidays.

As a child, Rothschild lived in a house with about 30 other family members and learned about the business world at an early age – his father, Amschel Moses Rothschild, traded coins, silk and other commodities for a living. One of Amschel Rothschild’s clients was Crown Prince Wilhelm of Hesse.

Mayer Rothschild became an orphan at age 12, when his mother and father died in a smallpox epidemic. Before their passing, Rothschild’s parents wanted their son to become a rabbi. However, shortly after his 13th birthday, he decided to take an apprenticeship with a banking firm in Hanover, Germany. During his time there, Rothschild learned the ins and outs of banking and foreign trade from bankers who used their extensive connections and financial skills to advise and serve the reigning nobility; some of these bankers had risen to the status of what were known as "court Jews," or court factors. 

The Beginnings of a Banking Empire

Rothschild returned to his hometown of Frankfurt when he turned 19. Along with his brothers, he continued the commodities and money-trading business their father had started and also sold rare coins. Through his rare coin business, Rothschild met Crown Prince Wilhelm, who in 1785 became Wilhelm IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and eventually the European continent’s richest man. Rothschild was soon providing other banking services to Wilhelm and a number of nobles, and by 1769, he was given the title of court factor. In 1770, he married and went on to have 10 children – five sons and five daughters.

Expanding and Controlling the Rothschild Footprint

The Rothschild banking empire benefited tremendously from the French Revolution. During the war, the Austrian army contracted Rothschild to supply it with a range of items, including wheat, uniforms, horses and equipment; he also facilitated monetary transactions for Hessian mercenary soldiers. Around that time, Rothschild sent his sons to live in the capital cities of various European countries with the goal of establishing banking businesses in Naples, Vienna, Paris and London, in addition to Frankfurt. With Mayer Rothschild’s children spread across Europe, the five linked branches became, in effect, the first bank to transcend borders. Lending to governments to finance war operations over several centuries provided the Rothschild family with ample opportunity to accumulate bonds and build  additional wealth in a range of different industries.

Before he died in 1812, Mayer Rothschild left strict rules for his descendants on how they should handle the family’s finances. He wanted to keep the fortune within the family and, as such, encouraged the arrangement of marriages among relatives. According to an article published in the August 2003 issue of Discover magazine entitled “Go Ahead, Kiss Your Cousin,” “Mayer Amschel Rothschild arranged his affairs so that cousin marriages among his descendants were inevitable. His will barred female descendants from any direct inheritance. Without an inheritance, female Rothschilds had few possible marriage partners of the same religion and suitable economic and social stature – except other Rothschilds. Rothschild brides bound the family together. Four of Mayer’s granddaughters married grandsons, and one married her uncle. These were hardly people whose mate choice was limited by the distance they could walk on their day off.”

Nathan Mayer Rothschild

Of the four Rothschilds who ventured out, Nathan, the third son (1777-1836), achieved the greatest success. Nathan took over the lead role in pioneering international finance. Using a network of carrier pigeons and couriers to communicate with his siblings, Nathan acted as a central bank for Europe – brokering purchases for kings, rescuing national banks and funding infrastructure, such as railroads, that would help start the Industrial Revolution.

Nathan had moved to England in 1798. There he founded a textile jobbing business with £20,000 of working capital, the equivalent of £2 million today. He also began trading on the London Stock Exchange and eventually founded a bank, which became N M Rothschild & Sons Ltd. The firm is the country’s seventh oldest bank in continuous operation. Although privately held and still controlled by the Rothschild family, N M Rothschild & Sons Ltd. reported a net income of £51.558 million in 2015.

Like the other Rothschild banks that were subsequently set up throughout Europe, N M Rothschild & Sons Ltd. furnished credit to the government during times of war and crisis. During the Napoleonic Wars, for example, it managed and financed various subsidies the British government sent to its different allies and lent funds to pay the British troops, almost single-handedly financing the British war effort.

In 1824 he and Moses Montefiore cofounded the Alliance Assurance Company, which lives on today as RSA Insurance Group. Nathan also helped fund the newly founded country of Belgium in 1830 and gained the rights to the Almadén mines from the Spanish government in 1835, securing a European monopoly on mercury, which was used to refine gold and silver. The supply of the chemical came in handy in the 1850s, when NM Rothschild & Sons started to refine gold and silver for the Bank of England and the Royal Mint. 

Growing Philanthropic Activities 

Nathan contributed to many areas of philanthropy in the Jewish community. His family later expanded these charitable efforts to other populations in Paris and London. His earliest efforts went toward synagogues in London. He continued to champion this work, which eventually led to the formation of United Synagogue, a larger organization that helped streamline the causes of the smaller individual synagogues. Later, various family members supported the creation of Israel and helped with the construction of government buildings.

Rothschild had seven children with his wife, Hannah Barent Cohen. Those children followed and built on their family's philanthropic tradition. The Rothschild Archive reports that Nathan's youngest child, Louise, and her seven daughters took responsibility for many of the 30 Rothschild charitable foundations in Frankfurt. These included public libraries, orphanages, hospitals, homes for the elderly and special funds allocated for the purpose of education. The Jews’ Free School in London, in particular, received extensive financial support. Educational efforts in Austria, France and Israel were also made possible through Rothschild generosity. In addition to monies put toward education, the family gave an estimated 60,000 pieces of artwork to numerous organizations. The Rothschild family expanded the creation of social housing in the cities of London and Paris, and the Rothschild Foundation was created to further these efforts.

The House of Rothschild in the 20th Century

Internal and external change – including world wars, politics and family rivalries – diminished the family fortune over the next 100 years. The Naples branch of the bank had closed in 1863 and a lack of male heirs led to the closing of the Frankfurt branch in 1901; the Vienna branch was shuttered in 1938 after the Nazis invaded Austria and Jews were endangered in the lead-up to World War II. The Vichy government in France expropriated Rothschild Bordeaux properties during the war and the Nazis confiscated millions of dollars’ worth of art, jewels and precious objects from the Austrian branch of the family (a portion of these were returned by the Austrian government in 1998). Over the years, palatial Rothschild estates were gradually donated to the British and French governments and to other organizations and universities. 

By the 1970s three Rothschild banks remained: the London and Paris branches and a Swiss bank founded by Baron Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild (1926-1977). In 1982, president Francois Mitterrand’s socialist government dealt the Paris bank fatal blow, nationalizing it and renaming it Compagnie Européenne de Banque. Despite his independence – and resentment at being called “le petit Edmond” (a reference to his small stature among the generally tall Rothschilds) – Edmond came to the aid of his cousin, Baron David René de Rothschild (1942- ), who had stayed in Paris and in 1986 created Rothschild & Cie Banque. David quickly built it into France’s second largest merchant bank. In 2003, the British and French banks were united with David as chairman, and in 2008 all of the holdings were reorganized under a single company, a shareholder of Paris Orléans based in France, unifying the family businesses roughly two centuries after the five sons of Mayer Rothschild spread out across Europe. 

Moving into the 21st Century

The family wealth has been divided among many descendants and heirs throughout the years. Today, Rothschild holdings span a number of industries including, financial services, real estate, mining, energy and charitable work. The family also owns more than a dozen wineries in North America, Europe, South America, South Africa and Australia.

Traditionally, the Rothschild fortune is invested in closely held corporations. Today, Rothschild corporations have continued to see success. Most family members are employed by these corporations directly or are invested in operations that generate family wealth. The remarkable success of the family has largely been due to a strong interest in cooperation, being entrepreneurs and the practice of smart business principles. The estate of Nathan Rothschild was intimately tied to the other fortunes of the family and became part of the collective wealth each Rothschild passed to the next generation. Rothschild descendants continue to finance global business operations and contribute to scholarly, humanitarian, cultural and business endeavors.

The family motto is: Concordia, Integritas, Industria, which means “Harmony, Integrity, Industry.”

II/III.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/courts-commerce-and-the-constitution/the-continuing-crucifixion-of-amartya-sen/

The continuing crucifixion of Amartya Sen

April 16, 2019, 1:24 PM IST 

Santosh Paul in Courts Commerce and the Constitution | Economy | ET

An article has surfaced under the title ‘Strange Saga of Amartya Sen and the Rothschilds’ by the author Arvind Kumar. The title is obviously  meant to conjure up the latent anti-Semitic sentiment against  a time tested goblin – the Jewish global financial conspiracy. This   harangue is  published in  a online newspaper called Sunday Guardian. Not to be mistaken  with a  Sunday edition of the Guardian of U.K. The similarity in the nomenclature is to give it an air of journalistic  respectability to the journal swimming the tide against the so called left influenced media.

 Why this article? Amartya Sen is a luminous star in the constellation of influential economists. He is anathema for India’s right wing not just for his steadfast views on  welfare economics but for his being  an ardent and vocal advocate of the Nehruvian worldview. Worse, he endorses the Kerala model of growth which for some mistaken reason is seen as wholly  the creation of the left ignoring substantial Congress rule in the state which contributed to it’s remaining on the top of the human index charts. These are ideas  antithetical to the intellectual dispensation trying to gain ascendancy. The trouble for his detractors is that Sen is far too intellectually equipped and has too many arrows in his quiver to be shredded by the run of the mill. So it is necessary to destroy his reputation by slander, innuendo or this  conjecture ridden analysis.

 The article communicates in great haste and urgency, that Amartya Sen is married to Emma Rothschild, “one  of the heiress  of the world’s wealthiest family.” What we are not told is that she is a British economic historian of repute and is currently serving as the Professor of History at the Harvard University. The photograph posted accompanying the article of Sen and Emma is a letdown. It is shorn of the glitz and glamour one expects with such a statement and we are left staring at two very  staid academics in not so glamorous surroundings.

 Coming back to the thrust of the argument, the author writes that the Rothschild family have made money “off (sic) India and the Indian government”. Which branch of the Rothschilds? Which entity of the Rothschild? And how did they make this money “off” India, whatever that means? There are no explanations. If the reader is not familiar with this kind of semantics he is ‘the uninitiated’. The very next sentence will send heads spinning into a tizzy. The  Rothschilds are estimated to be worth “at least US dollars 400 billion” which was   by enriching themselves  “finding opportunity on growing misery around the world”. True to its anti semitic liturgy and plot, we are informed that the Rothschild family has manipulated stock markets, funded World Wars, exercised significant control over the banking system, owns large media outlets to influence public opinion in their favour. The following sentence though disconnected is very critical. “Amartya Sen, of course, is the apostle of poverty.” The author is sending a coded message to his constituents – the connection between big money and the apostle of welfare economics.

 The author does not waste much time in zeroing  in on to his now unconcealed agenda.  NM Rothschild and Sons “is seen as having made tremendous amounts of money” during  the UPA regime between 2004 and 2014. This allegation is bereft of any substantiation. But that’s not required. Now comes the further insinuation.   Mayer    Victor Rothschild, i.e. Mr. Sen’s father-in-law “was part of the management of NM Rothschild & Sons”. The average reader would like to know what were the positions he held? And which years did he hold it? And then he would ask the basic question, where is the connect? The author instead reveals a disconnected fact which he lazily purveyed from the Internet. Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Victor’s cousin owns a significant stake in the Economist magazine which explains the magazine’s barbs, support to Sonia Gandhi and propping up Amartya Sen’s economic ideas. Does the right of centre Economist magazine advocate Sen’s views on the welfare state? The author it appears has little knowledge of economics. And he certainly does not read the Economist.

 We are told and made to believe that the Rothschild’s are responsible for everything which went wrong with business deals in India during the diabolic UPA regime. Be it AIRCEL, Vedanta, Kingfisher or Venkateshwara Hatcheries. Then we are told again without proof that NM Rothschild was involved in UPA to swing deals from Vedanta’s acquisitions to Kingfishers acquisition of Air Deccan. Wait a minute! Are these acquisitions illegal? Not to common knowledge.   The author is not inclined to even remotely suggest it. All he suggests is that each of the firms, I presume he means companies, ‘has come under a scanner of the authorities’. For what?  Now comes  the eureka moment,“Venkateswara hatcheries was raided by income tax sleuths” for “transactions related to movements of huge amounts of cash” during Tuglak moment in India’s contemporary economic history – the demonetisation..  So what is the sequitur? Believe it or not, this explains Amartya Sen’s criticism of demonetization. Bizarre? Not yet.

 The article then zooms in to the surreal. The‘firm’ meaning NM Rothschild was chosen to e-auction 3 G spectrum “even though they never been known as a computer software firm”. NM Rothschild is one of the 10 largest investment bankers in the world. By this proposition, they simply could not have been given this assignment because, lo behold! they are not a  ‘computer software firm’ .

 Rothschilds according to the author has a net worth of US $ 400 billion. Now it is alleged they pocketed Rs.30.5 crores. How? Did they rob it? Was it a dole-out? What was this transaction about? Readers are left wondering and curious. And why did it escape the investigation? How did it slip the prosecution while filling charge sheet in the case? There is no explanation why this was not brought to attention of law enforcement who had their noses rubbed to the ground  when all the charges fell flat on its face. The author aware of the shortcoming of his soliloquy. He quips “of course, none of this has been probed even after 2014”.  2014 is not just a casual date. But he cannot be allowed to walk out of that nonchalantly. Because  2014 is the year the NDA came to power and the editor of Sunday Guardian was M.J.Akbar was a prized minister in the new regime. Why did the regime not pursue the Rothschilds? If this angle was not probed, how did our Sherlock Holmes fall upon this information?

 Fearing a libel action the author now treads  cautiously. Rothschild Bank AG and its subsidiaries “may have violated money laundering rules in the multi-billion – dollar 1 MDB corruption case in Malaysia”.   ‘May have’? who gave the piece of speculative information or is it insinuation to the author. The author aware of the limitations of speculation admits a definitive conclusion could not be reached without a comprehensive enquiry. But it does not deter him from innuendo. He now suggests there is a need to investigate its activities determine whether the unusually high rate of scams amongst Rothschild’s  clientele is a coincidence. Wondering? Let us not forget this piece of writing is an exercise in the semantics of faith and not of reason.

 For an article of this nature which goes on tirelessly it cannot but take pot shots at Sen and his economics. The author quotes Lynn Forester.  In case you forgot she holds significant shares in  Economist. She is quoted being  delighted to bring Del Monte Pacific into India “to participate in the explosive economic growth of India”. All of a sudden the author angrily rants that Amartya Sen has not extended the same consideration to the poorer people of India who also desire to participate in this explosive growth. Baffled ?  Now comes the explanation which will require halucagens to understand the logic. Sen has ensured Indians would qualify as recipients of small amounts of money as part of welfare schemes “wrapped in the name of Mahatma Gandhi”. Make no mistake it’s the path breaking NREGA which is under attack. This according to our author has prevented able bodied people from actively participating as productive members of the economy.  This was a dominant theme of the NRI laize faire economists who descended in hordes post 2014. Failing to make a dent they beat the retreat disillusioned or snubbed by NDA who were politically pragmatic not to wholly abandon welfare economics.

 There is always a grand finale to these kinds of works. It always tries to kill two ideas with one insinuation. The writer now moves on like a trapeze artist walking on sea level pretending to be performing a high jinks tight rope walk. 

 “Like Amartya Sen, some in the UPA were aligned with groups friendly to the Naxalites and Naxalite supporters on Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council”. You should have guessed it right by now who that Naxalite supporter is. Sen’s intellectual fellow traveler Jean Dreze “was a key member of Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council”. Like a deft movie camera in a Hollywood action movie  he suddenly swoops down  on to the bizarre.  “Amartya Sen’s economic policies ended up with the same track record as his family business”.  What are Sen’s economic policies? And what are his family business? I guess he is referring to the business of the Rothschilds. 

The reader is sent  reeling not just with absurdities of the  argument but at the speed at which they is thrown at him.  How the US $ 400 billion Rothschild empire is involved with the Naxalite movement will baffle ordinary minds. For the uninitiated, further proof may be required for the connect. But for those baptised, the mere statement is clinching evidence. One thing is for sure is if these Naxal subversives assume power; the Rothschilds would be their first target.  Maybe the Naxalites and the Rothschilds have common interests.  That will be the day when we loose our collective common sense.

III.

https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/strange-saga-amartya-sen-rothschilds?fbclid=IwAR0a96RaYrpdX-r8Q3k0t0BzxV6jPkqIDk3ApdoBpObYOEy0hHeV8hKtKWg

Strange saga of Amartya Sen and the Rothschilds

Arvind Kumar

Updated :  April 6, 2019,  9:05 PM

 

Amartya Sen and his wife Emma Rothschild, who is one of the heiresses to the world’s wealthiest family.

Rothschilds & Co funds units of ‘civil society’ in India that control narrative on ‘human rights violations’.

 

 

Amartya Sen has become hyperactive in attacking policies that benefit the people of India, but one fact he has been shy of disclosing during his attacks is his apparent conflict of interest by virtue of marrying Emma Rothschild, one of the heiresses of the world’s wealthiest family. The family have made money off India and the Indian government. The assets of the Rothschilds are estimated to be worth at least US$400 billion and the family has a reputation of enriching itself by finding opportunity even on growing misery around the world. The Rothschild family has a history of manipulating stock markets, funding world wars, engineering large scale decisions in their favour, exercising significant control over the banking system, and owning large media outlets to influence public opinion in their favour. Amartya Sen, of course, is the apostle of poverty.

The family business of Amartya Sen’s family on wife’s side, NM Rothschild & Sons, is seen as having made tremendous amounts of money during the United Progressive Alliance regime between 2004 and 2014, even as Sen’s blue-eyed-boy, Jean Dreze was a key member of Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council. The connection between Amartya Sen and his family’s business is not merely a tenuous one. On the contrary, Sen’s father-in-law himself, Nathaniel Mayer Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild, was part of the management of NM Rothschild & Sons. Victor’s cousin, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, owns a significant stake in the Economist magazine, which explains the magazine’s constant barbs against the Hindu community even as they support Sonia Gandhi and prop up Amartya Sen’s economic ideas.

One deal that is regarded as benefiting NM Rothschild & Sons during the UPA rule involves the e-auction of 3G spectrum. The firm had been chosen to conduct the e-auction even though they had never been known as a computer software firm. The firm pocketed Rs 30.5 crore for conducting the auction and this must be considered as a gift by the UPA government. It is not clear why there was a need for an e-auction when there were only a handful of participants in the bidding process. The most questionable aspect of this whole episode was that the Rothschilds were not a neutral third party, but had been retained by Aircel, which was looking for a buyer for their towers that were eventually sold for $1.8 billion. Of course, none of this has been probed even after 2014.

Today, several firms that involved NM Rothschild & Sons to swing deals during the UPA era are embroiled in financial scams. Apart from Aircel, which is caught up in the Aircel-Maxis scam, NM Rothschild was also involved in Vedanta’s purchase of Cairn India, Kingfisher Airlines taking over Air Deccan, and the promoters of Venkateswara Hatcheries acquiring the English Premier League football club, Blackburn Rovers. Each of these firms has come under the scanner of the authorities. Venkateswara Hatcheries was raided by the income tax sleuths after suspicions about transactions related to movements of huge amounts of cash in the wake of demonetisation. For this reason, Amartya Sen’s criticism of demonetisation may contain more than meets the eye.

A few months ago, it was determined that Rothschild Bank AG and one of its subsidiaries may have violated money laundering rules in the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB corruption case in Malaysia. This background of Rothschild Bank is combined with the fact that mergers and acquisitions, especially those spanning multiple international jurisdictions, readily lend themselves to allegations of being vehicles for money laundering through arbitrary valuation of the firm being acquired. As a definitive conclusion cannot be reached without a comprehensive inquiry, there is a need to investigate NM Rothschild activities in India and determine whether the unusually high rate of scams among their clientele is a coincidence.

The Rothschilds have been active in a number of sectors in India including infrastructure, financial advisory, healthcare, and food processing, and when one Rothschild firm sold its share in a joint venture to Del Monte Pacific, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, CEO of EL Rothschild said, “We are delighted to have brought this company to a point where it has attracted large international players like Del Monte Pacific. This is a positive way for us to participate in the explosive economic growth of India.” Amartya Sen has not extended the same consideration towards the poorer people of India who would also want to participate in the “explosive economic growth of India”. Instead, he has ranted and raved against policies that would allow Indians to participate in their own economy, and along with his protégés in the National Advisory Council of the UPA government, he has ensured that Indians would only qualify as recipients of small amounts of money thrown at them as part of welfare schemes wrapped in the name of “Mahatma Gandhi”, while being prevented from actively participating as productive members of the economy and competing against his family on wife’s side, the Rothschilds.

Amartya Sen’s recent salvos on India include demands of non-interference in what he calls the “civil society”, which really translates to foreign and foreign-funded non-governmental organisations that actively interfere in Indian politics. He asks for complete freedom for the Reserve Bank of India with no oversight by the Indian people or their democratically elected representatives even as those who control the RBI take instructions from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These demands may reflect his family’s priorities, as the proposal for setting up the RBI first arose during the hearings before the Indian Currency Committee in 1898 and 1899 from two members of the Rothschild clan—Alfred de Rothschild and his brother Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild. Both Rothschilds wanted RBI to be controlled from the West, with no oversight from the Delhi government, exactly as Amartya Sen now demands. Indian freedom fighters saw through this game of the British and defeated their efforts to create the Reserve Bank in the 1920s. The Rothschilds’ business in India goes back to a much earlier period. As far back as 1814, Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the grandfather of the two Rothschilds who provided inputs to the Currency Committee, was not only a voting member of the United Company of Merchants of England, Trading to the East Indies (also known as the East India Company), but was also among the few people eligible to be chosen as its director.

Today, Rothschild & Co funds units of the so-called “civil society” in India that control the narrative on what constitutes “human rights violations”. (Hint: Anything Hindus do is a violation of human rights unless it benefits those who wield power in America and Europe.) One organisation it funds is Prerana, which lists Asha for Education as a partner on its website. In 2002, the founder of Asha for Education, Sandeep Pandey, attended the party congress of the Naxalite group Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation and called for the unity of “revolutionary” organisations. CPI(ML)-L openly advocates an “armed revolution” and its stated objectives include the use of “illegal” methods and raising an army to wage a war against India. At their 2002 meeting, the party also honoured “comrade martyrs” or terrorists killed in action.

Like Amartya Sen, some in the UPA were aligned with the group friendly to the Naxalites and had Naxalite supporters on Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council. It is fitting that the government which was based on Amartya Sen’s economic policies ended up with the same track record as his family business—a trail of deals that enriched the wealthiest people in the world at the cost of the poorer people in the country.

Arvind Kumar can be reached at arv...@uchicago.edu

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Peace Is Doable