The BJP today slammed the opposition, saying it was levelling "mischievous" and "baseless" allegations that India's Global Hunger Index rank has slipped to 100th in 2017 from 55th in 2014.
BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said the Opposition's "allegation" was a "scurrilous attempt" to tarnish the image of India and that "Rahul Gandhi and Congress party have been engaged" in this activity for over three years.
"The Opposition's allegation that India's rank in the Global Hunger Index 2017 report has slipped to 100th position from 55th in 2014 is mischievous, baseless and represents travesty of truth," he said in a statement.
The BJP totally rejects the allegations and the mischievous imputations, he added.
Rao explained that in 2014, India's ranking on this index was 55th but at that time only 76 countries were included in the ranking.
In the Global Hunger Index in 2017, he said, 44 countries which were not part of the index in 2014 and which have always had better development indices compared to India, have been included.
"By deliberately suppressing this fact, Rahul Gandhi and Congress party are guilty of deliberate prevarication and obfuscation," he said.
Rao said the ranking is based on the performance during 2012-16, and during this period Congress was in power for 2.5 years, preceded by about eight years of their rule.
"Therefore, if the India's score in 2017 reflects a negative trend, the Congress-led UPA government must own up its own failure," Rao said.
The GHI ranks countries on a scale of 100 points with 0 (zero) being the best and 100 the worst scores, he said, adding India has improved its score from 35.6 in 2008 to 31.4 in 2017.
On all the four parameters of the GHI study, the country's position has improved except one parameter 'Prevalence of wasting in children under 5 years', he said.
"India's position was improving on this parameters also from 1994 to 2002, but drastically worsened between 2002 and 2016, which contains a decade of Congress rule," he added.
Following the GHI report, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had attacked the government with a couplet by Dushyant Kumar. "Bhookh hai to sabr kar, roti nahi to kya hua, aajkal dilli mein hai zer-e-behas yeh mudda (if you are hungry, be patient, what if bread is not available, the issue is being discussed).
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
