'Count me as your sister': Mamata backs Amartya Sen amid land row

Expressing pain and anguish at recent developments alluding to Amartya Sen's familial properties in Shantiniketan, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday wrote to the Nobel laureate asking him to count her as a sister and friend in his war against "intolerance and totalitarianism".

Banerjee termed the accusations as untrue, and unfair attacks.

Speaking on the controversy about Sen allegedly being in illegal possession of Visva-Bharati land, Banerjee has claimed that the celebrated economist was often targeted because of his anti-BJP stance.

In her letter to the Nobel laureate, she wrote that some nouveau invaders in Visva-Bharati have started raising surprising and completely baseless allegations about Sen's familial properties in Shantiniketan.

"This pains me, and I want to express my solidarity with you in your battles against the bigotry of the majoritarians in this country, the battles that have made you an enemy of these forces of untruth," Banerjee wrote.

"Kindly count me as your sister and friend in your just war against intolerance and totalitarianism," she wrote in her letter to Sen.