‘Intellectually dishonest': Congress slams govt assertion on India being among ‘most equal' countries

Indian Express

20 hours ago

The Congress on Monday termed as 'fraudulent' and 'intellectually dishonest' the government's assertion that India is among the world's most equal countries, and said the Modi government cannot simply wish away the stark reality of deepening inequalities by 'doctoring data'.
The opposition party's attack came after an official release, citing World Bank data, said inequality in India has come down significantly between 2011-12 and 2022-23, making it the fourth-most equal country globally.
The Congress demanded that the Press Information Bureau (PIB) must clarify as to the origins of this press release and retract it immediately.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, 'Aap chronology samajhiye. The World Bank released its Poverty and Equity Brief for India in April 2025. Immediately after, the Congress released a statement identifying the several warning signs that the World Bank had flashed for poverty and inequality in India – including warnings about government data underestimating inequality.' Three months after its release, on July 5, the Modi government's drumbeaters and cheerleaders in the 'Press (mis)Information Bureau' issued a press release making the 'staggeringly out-of-touch' claim that India is among the world's most equal societies, Ramesh said in a statement.
In a press statement issued on July 6, the Congress once again warned that the government's data interpretation was based on the limited availability and the uncertain quality of existing data, as well as to the selection of dated benchmarks to measure poverty, he said.
Now it emerges that the Modi government was not only 'negligent' in its analysis of the World Bank report, it was also outright 'intellectually dishonest', Ramesh said.
He claimed that to arrive at its conclusion, the Modi government deliberately chose to use two different benchmarks: consumption inequality in India and income inequality in other countries.
'A comparison between two entities requires us to use the same metric to judge them. This is not just a fundamental principle of economic analysis, but one of common sense' Ramesh said.
The choice to measure consumption inequality in India was also deliberate, he said.
Ramesh pointed out that consumption inequality is always less than income inequality since the rich save a large part of their income.
'When we compare India's income equality to that of the rest of the world, India performs extremely poorly: India is ranked 176 out of a total of 216 countries in 2019. In other words, India is not the 4th most equal society – it is actually the 40th most unequal society in the world,' he claimed.
'Income inequality in India has grown, and worsened in the last few years under the Modi Raj,' Ramesh said.
Wealth inequality in India is even higher than income inequality, reflecting the disproportionate gains of the elite in the last 11 years of cronyism, he said.
'Such fraudulent analysis, being published through the auspices of the PIB, reveals one of two things: a disturbing lack of talent in this government, or an equally disturbing lack of intellectual integrity. The PIB must clarify as to the origins of this press release and retract it immediately,' Ramesh said.
'There has been a dangerous trend of such random ad-hoc statements and declarations coming from the Modi Government's officials,' he claimed.
'In May 2025, we saw a similar flurry of incoherent and diverging statements from NITI Aayog officials on the size of the Indian economy. The political leadership's penchant for distortion and propaganda has clearly trickled down to officials as well,' Ramesh said.
By 'doctoring data', the Modi government cannot simply wish away the stark reality of what is staring us in the face – growing and deepening inequalities, driven by its mindsets and policies, he said.
In its release, the government attributed the reduction in inequality to various initiatives and schemes pursued during the last decade.
'…India's Gini Index stands at 25.5, making it the fourth most equal country in the world, after the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Belarus,' the statement said.
The Congress on Sunday had expressed concerns over the recent World Bank report that said poverty and inequality remain concerningly high in India, and requested the Centre to take steps, including bringing in GST reforms and ending corporate favouritism.
Citing the World Bank's poverty and equity brief for India in April 2025, Ramesh had said three months after its release, the Narendra Modi government's 'drumbeaters and cheerleaders have begun spinning the World Bank's data to make the staggeringly out-of-touch claim that India is among the world's most equal societies'.
He had said the good news that the Centre is so desperately trying to wrangle out of this report is partly attributable to the limited availability and uncertain quality of government data as well as to the selection of benchmarks to measure poverty.
'No country that has a poverty rate of 28.1 per cent can make a justifiable claim to being one of the most equal societies in the world,' the Congress leader had said.