New Delhi, Nov. 6 (PTI): Economist Jean Dreze, ex-member of the erstwhile National Advisory Council led by Sonia Gandhi, was dropped from the list of speakers at the Delhi Economics Conclave, organised today by the Union finance ministry and inaugurated by the Prime Minister.

Chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian, who had sent the invitation to Dreze, said its cancellation had nothing to do with Dreze's "views" and that the economist was welcome to attend the conference.

But Dreze, a co-author of several books with Amartya Sen, said he had been told he "would not even be allowed to attend".

Twitter bristled with indignation at the treatment of Dreze. The controversy comes amid a debate on the growing intolerance to dissent being shown by the Sangh parivar and its allies.

In an email to PTI, Dreze said he had been informed of his name being dropped from the panel of speakers two days ago. "I am deeply disappointed, and also concerned that the conclave has turned into a mutual appreciation society with everyone on the same side," he said.

"On the train to Delhi (two days ago), I received a call from a functionary from the ministry of finance who explained, with some embarrassment, that I had been dropped from the programme and would not even be allowed to attend. No reason was given."

Dreze has had the speech he had prepared uploaded on a news portal. He said that since he had been denied entry to the conclave, he was sharing his views with the public.

Subramanian blamed the cancellation of the invite on "last-minute adjustments" to the event schedule.

"As soon as we had decided, we informed Jean Dreze about it. (I) just want to make clear, this has nothing to do with (Dreze's) views," he said.

Subramanian cited how "the finance minister (Arun Jaitley) himself personally called the Kerala chief minister" - Congress politician Oommen Chandy, with whom Jaitley would have differed on many matters - to invite him to the event.

Dreze was to speak on "political economy and states' perspectives and preparedness". His uploaded speech pointed to the pitfalls of the government's push for the so-called JAM trinity as a foundation for social policy.

"JAM" is acronym for Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile - which are together meant to enhance direct transfers of welfare cash to beneficiaries' bank accounts, weeding out middlemen.

Dreze argued that the JAM infrastructure was not in place and was unlikely to be ready anytime soon. He also opposed the idea in principle. He cited the failure of "recent experiments with high-tech cash transfers in Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Delhi, Puducherry and elsewhere", and the disruption caused by a hasty, top-down transition to bank payments of rural job scheme wages.