Maha Congress slams Centre as India falls on World Hunger Index

Terming it as the "failure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi", the Maharashtra Congress on Friday slammed the Centre and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as India fell another four places on the World Hunger Index.

State unit Congress General Secretary Sachin Sawant said that now India has dropped below neighbours like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan in terms of the number of people facing hunger and starvation. 

"During the Modi rule, only his friends have prospered while the poor are getting poorer. India's rank on WHI was 63 (2013) but under the BJP rule dropped to 101 (2021), 107 (2022) and 111 (2023). This is a clear sign of the failure of the government," said Sawant.

Elaborating, he alleged that PM Modi can buy an aircraft worth Rs 8,000 crore and spend Rs 4,000 crore on the G-20 conference or Rs 21,000 crore on the Delhi convention centre, while millions of Indians go to sleep hungry daily. 

"When foreigners visit India, the Modi government hides the country's poverty by putting up curtains. Those who talk about the prices of tomato and petrol in Pakistan never discuss hunger and starvation prevalent in India. The fact that Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh rank higher on WHI is a shame," Sawant said. 

He said the Centre has declined in all areas, and after the fall in GDP, the Indian Rupee and other sectors, now the country has plummeted even on the WHI rankings owing to false promises to the people.