BJP welcomes World Bank report on income distribution, dismisses Congress allegation

Hindustan Times

13 hours ago

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday welcomed the World Bank's report, which ranked India as the 'fourth most equal country' in terms of income distribution, dismissing the Congress party's allegation that the report was misrepresented. The World Bank report placed India below only the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Belarus, categorising it as a 'moderately low' unequal country. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)
Referring to the World Bank's Gini Index report, BJP spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam said India's transformation from being part of the 'fragile five' in 2013–14 to the 'fabulous four' today reflected the government's policy success.
'This did not happen overnight. It is the vision of PM Modi that is reflected in reports like the one by the World Bank, which puts India as the fourth most equal country, ahead of any G7 nation,' he said. Islam pointed to a fall in the Gini Index — from 28.8 in 2011–12 to 25.5 in 2022–23 — as a sign of declining income inequality.
The World Bank report placed India below only the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Belarus, categorising it as a 'moderately low' unequal country. The Gini index is a measure of inequality, with a lower score indicating more equitable income distribution. The report noted that India had outperformed major economies such as the United States (41.8), China (35.7) and the United Kingdom (34.4) in this metric.
Islam also cited a Pew Research Centre survey, which found that 74% of Indians were 'relatively happy' with both their democracy and economy, placing India second among 23 surveyed countries.
The BJP's comments came days after Congress accused the government of distorting data from the World Bank's Poverty and Equity Brief for India, released in April. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh claimed the government was cherry-picking data while ignoring key findings.
'In April 2025, the World Bank released its Poverty and Equity Brief for India. But three months later, the Modi Government's cheering gang is distorting the data in this report to make the misleading claim that India is one of the most equitable societies in the world,' Ramesh said in a statement.
He cited the report's observation that 28.1% of Indians still live in poverty and that India continues to be classified as a 'lower-middle income' country. 'So the correct measure of poverty in India is income of $3.65 per day. On this basis, the poverty rate in India has been quite high, 28.1%,' he said. Ramesh also flagged persistent wage inequality, noting that the income of the top 10% was 13 times higher than the bottom 10%, and added that 'consumption-based inequality may be an underestimate due to sampling and data limitations.'
The Congress called for bolstering welfare schemes like MGNREGA and the National Food Security Act to protect vulnerable populations. 'The long-standing demands of the Indian National Congress (INC) to increase MNREGA wages, conduct a census (now scheduled in 2027), and cover 10 crore additional people under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) are all the more urgent in light of these new figures,' the party's statement said.
Responding to the criticism, Islam reiterated that 270 million people had been lifted out of poverty under the Modi government. 'We made the rich aware of their responsibility towards the country to ensure equality,' he said. He targeted the Congress, saying, 'Jairam Ramesh talked about rising inflation and unemployment. He must take a look back at the Congress's period and compare it with the last 10 years. They used to give slogans such as 'gareebi hatao', we made it happen. Whatever they allege, we can speak with facts and figures on how we developed the country.'
He further claimed that the BJP government had created over 170 million jobs, compared to only 28 million under the Congress's tenure. 'The way we are creating jobs, it is possible that the strength will increase to five times the number of Congress members,' he said.