Amartya Sen and Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, came together to emphasise the need for protecting peace and ending intolerance.
DHAKA: Two Bangla-speaking Nobel laureates, India's Amartya Sen and Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, came together to emphasise the need for protecting peace and ending intolerance on Monday.
Intolerance was the major factor in the conflict-torn world, Sen, the 1998 Economics Nobel winner, said at a reception held in his honour at the Osmany Memorial Hall.
"The world today witnesses different types of conflicts. One of the major factors of these conflicts is intolerance -- the attitude not to tolerate each other," Sen said at the reception hosted by residents of Bangladesh's central Manikganj district, his ancestral home.
Gradually, he said, "We must put in our efforts to explore ways to end the phenomenon". He particularly urged all to use their conscience so religions could not be used to destroy peace and harmony.
Speaking on the occasion, this year's Nobel peace prize winner Yunus referred to the end of a long political standoff in poll-bound Bangladesh and said, "After protracted uncertainty, we have now heaved a sigh of relief as all the parties have agreed to join the (general) polls."
But Yunus warned that the relief could only be a temporary phenomenon until the January 22 elections unless the people of all parties, youths in particular, joined hands to protect peace in the post-poll period promising to confirm fair polling in their respective areas and certify the polls as free and fair so none could reject the results calling it a rigged election.
Yunus became the first Bangladeshi to receive the Nobel Prize earlier this month at Norwegian capital of Oslo for his experiment of poor people's banking that earned this country the reputation of being the home of micro-credit.
Other than Sen and Yunus, the only other Bengali-speaking person to win a Nobel was Rabindranath Tagore, who is also the composer of the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh.
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