Harvard professor Gita Gopinath, whose appointment as economic adviser to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan created ripples in the Left circles, has expressed surprise at being labelled “neo-liberal”. She feels it’s rather “old-fashioned” to dub trained economists as Right-wing or Left-wing.
“The term neo-liberal does not have a good definition,” Gita Gopinath told a television news channel, as she came to India for her first consultation with the Kerala CM this week. “It’s mostly used when you are angry with somebody or dislike someone, you call them a neo-liberal. Because otherwise, there is no concrete definition to the term,” she pointed out, adding that the controversy was a big surprise.
“I was very surprised when I saw the reaction that came out because I think of myself as a technocrat. I am a technocrat. I am a trained economist. I think about issues. I use my economic training to devise solutions. I am purely a technocrat and I reject all ideological labels,” she told Asianet News in an interview telecast on Wednesday.
