‘Centre not ready to accept...’: CPM hits out at BJP on Global Hunger Index

New Delhi: General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Sitaram Yechury, lashed out at the Central government on Sunday over India's low ranking in the  Global Hunger Index, alleging that the Centre is unwilling to accept any international figures. In an interview with ANI, Yechury stated, "The current administration is unwilling to accept any international figures. At every level, the country is deteriorating. Look at the economic scale, unemployment, or even the type of propaganda that is going on in the form of violent politics; there is an atmosphere of fear, and there is a decline in every area."

"The government says that there are 121 countries and all of them agreed to the Hunger Index but ours did not believe because it showed a decline. It is known that crores of people have become poor who were not poor before COVID-19 but instead of giving relief to them, the Centre is busy giving a tax-relief and waiving loans to the rich," says Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary of CPI(M) has told ANI.

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He also claimed that the central government did not provide any assistance to the poor and that the current decline (Global Hunger Index) is "very serious." The Indian government completely rejected the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022 report, which ranked New Delhi 107th out of 121 countries. The data, according to the Centre, is an "erroneous measure of hunger" with "serious methodological issues," as the country lags behind its neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal in the current GHI 2022.

India's ranking at 107 in Global Hunger Index is part of consistent effort to taint country's image as "a nation that does not fulfil food security and nutritional requirements of its population”: Govt, adds index suffers from serious methodological issues — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 15, 2022

"The Index is an erroneous measure of hunger and suffers from serious methodological issues. 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 government of India on Global Hunger Report 2022 quotes this in a statement read on Saturday.

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In a statement, the Ministry of Women and Child Development emphasised that there is a consistent effort to tarnish India's image as a nation. According to the Global Hunger Index, India ranked 107th out of 121 countries, with the highest child-wasting rate in the world at 19.3 per cent.

(With ANI inputs)