Govt Living In Denial, Says Kharge After Centre Dismisses India's Ranking In Global Hunger Index 2022

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

File Photo of Congress Leader Mallikarjun Kharge. ( Image Source :PTI )

New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday slammed the BJP government and said that it is "living in denial" and is suppressing facts. This comes after India was ranked 107 out of 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2022.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is one of the contenders for the party’s president post, said that India has slipped in the hunger index yet again, now ranking 107, lagging behind every South Asian country except Afghanistan, as reported by the news agency PTI.

"BJP's living in denial and trying to suppress facts has led India to this massive crisis," he said on Twitter. "Are there anymore excuses still left, Modi ji," he asked, targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India has fallen on the hunger index yet again ,now ranking 107, lagging behind every south asian country except Afghanistan.

BJP's living in denial & trying to suppress facts has led India to this massive crisis.

Are there anymore excuses still left, Modi ji?

— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) October 15, 2022

The Congress also laid allegations on the Narendra Modi-led BJP government as it said that the "Modi government is equal to disaster". "India ranks 107th in the Hunger Index, out of a list of 121 countries. Till last year the ranking was 101. Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sudan, Nigeria, Rwanda. These countries are in a better position than us. Was this 'Acche Din' promised by the fake Vishwaguru," the Congress posted in Hindi on its official Twitter handle.

India ranked 107 out of 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2022, much behind its South Asia neighbours, with the child wasting rate at 19.3 per cent, the highest in the world.

The Centre rejected the findings, alleging 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", as reported by PTI.

With a score of 29.1, the level of hunger in India has been labelled "serious". The Women and Child Development ministry, in a statement, said three out of the four indicators used for the calculation of the index are related to the health of children and cannot be representative of the entire population.

The ministry said, "A consistent effort is yet again visible to taint India's image as a nation that does not fulfil the food security and nutritional requirements of its population. Misinformation seems to be the hallmark of the annually released Global Hunger Index." "The index is an erroneous measure of hunger and suffers from serious methodological issues," the ministry said.

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels. 

(With PTI Inputs)