Modi Government’s Claim of an Egalitarian Society is Misleading : Jairam Ramesh

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh stated that the government has deliberately engaged in intellectual dishonesty, while the truth is that Indian society is the 40th most unequal society globally.

He also demanded that the Press Information Bureau (PIB) withdraw the related press release.The government, citing the World Bank report, claimed that India is now among the most egalitarian societies in the world, with only the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Belarus ranking above it.

In a statement, Ramesh said, “Understand the chronology. In April 2025, the World Bank released its ‘Poverty and Equity Brief’ for India. Shortly after, the Congress issued a statement highlighting several warning signs in the report, including that government data on poverty and inequality in India underrepresents the actual situation.”

He added that three months after the report’s release, on July 5, the Modi government’s “cheerleading squad” and “Press (Mis)Information Bureau” (PIB) issued a press release making the shocking and groundless claim that Indian society is among the most egalitarian in the world.

The Congress leader claimed that it has now come to light that the Modi government was not only careless in its analysis of the World Bank report but also deliberately engaged in intellectual dishonesty.

Ramesh explained, “To arrive at its conclusion, the Modi government deliberately used two different metrics—‘consumption-based inequality’ for India and ‘income-based inequality’ for other countries.”

He emphasized that comparing two entities requires using the same standard, which is not only a fundamental principle of economic analysis but also a matter of common sense.