Political row erupts over India’s ranking on Global Hunger Index; Centre ‘living in denial’, says Congress

The rankings of the Global Hunger Index sparked a political row in the country while the central government rejected India’s spot on the index, the Congress party slammed the Modi government and said that they are “living in denial”.

India was ranked at 107^th spot out of the total 121 countries evaluated on the Global Hunger Index, and the Centre was quick to reject the ranking, saying that this was just an attempt to ruin the image of the country on a global front.

The Narendra Modi-led central government said that it is an effort to taint the country's image and the index suffers from serious methodological issues and is an "erroneous measure" of hunger, while opposition leaders said the government must take responsibility for its "failure".

Slamming the Centre for rejecting the hunger index, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said India has slipped in the hunger index yet again, now ranking 107, lagging behind every South Asian country except Afghanistan.

"BJP's living in denial and trying to suppress facts has led India to this massive crisis," he said on Twitter. "Are there any more excuses still left, Modi Ji," he asked, targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Congress also put out a tweet alleging that the "Modi government is equal to disaster".

Slamming the methodology of the Global Hunger Index, the Centre said that the report is not only disconnected from ground reality but also chooses to deliberately ignore efforts made by the government to ensure food security for the population, especially during the Covid pandemic.

The Global Hunger Index has labelled the level of hunger in India as ‘serious’, with a total score of 29.1 in the report, as per PTI reports. In Asia, Afghanistan with a rank of 109 is the only country behind India. Neighbouring countries - Pakistan (99), Bangladesh (84), Nepal (81) and Sri Lanka (64) have all fared better than India.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, India has been slipping further down on the Global Hunger Index. In 2021 India was ranked 101st position out of 116 countries while in 2020 the country was placed in 94th position.

(With PTI inputs)

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