NEW DELHI, Aug 1: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Friday slammed India’s defence budget for harming the country’s human development programmes and said last year’s violence in Gujarat was a further blow to Indian secularism.

India’s military expenditure was very high and affects key areas like health care and education, which require massive investment, Prof Sen was quoted by Press Trust of India as saying in New Delhi.

Although India’s per capita military expenditure was much lower than that of several countries, including Pakistan, the total budget was still very big, he added.

“You don’t fight a war with per capita expenditure in mind. India’s military expenditure is much more than Pakistan’s. India’s superiority in conventional weapons is another factor raising concerns over the matter in Islamabad,” he said.

Prof Sen said India was the first poor country in the world to opt for democracy. “And we have been successful in maintaining this through thick and thin.”

He said it is due to the greatness of the Indian democracy that Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani had agreed to discuss differences between them over issues of secularism and the Gujarat riots.

He said Gujarat’s communal violence had harmed India’s image as a secular country.

“It has made minorities’ position uncertain. I would not take consolation if it is worse elsewhere,” Prof Sen said.