Not ‘4th most equal society’, but 40th most unequal’: Congress rebuts Modi govt’s claims of inequality
The Congress on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi led-BJP government of doctoring World Bank data to present India as the “4th most equal society”, while claiming that the country is actually the “40th most unequal society” in the world.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, “By doctoring data, the Modi government cannot wish away the stark reality staring us in the face: growing and deepening inequalities, driven by its mindset and policies.”
In a press statement, the Congress 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.
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 report also cited a sharp decrease in extreme poverty, from 16.2 per cent in 2011-12 to 2.3 per cent in 2022-23, attributing the reduction to initiatives and schemes pursued during the last decade. The only three countries which have a better Gini Index score, a measure of equality, are the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Belarus. India, it said is much better placed than countries like China, the US and the UK.
However, Ramesh said a comparison between two entities requires using the same metric to judge them.
“This is not just a fundamental principle of economic analysis, but one of common sense. The choice to measure ‘consumption inequality’ in India was also deliberate. Consumption inequality is always less than ‘income inequality’ since the rich tend to save more of their income,” the statement said.
The party said when India’s income equality is compared to that of the rest of the world, India performs extremely “poorly”.
“India is ranked 176 out of 216 countries in 2019. In other words, India is not the 4th most equal society – it is actually the 40th most unequal societies in the world. Income inequality in India has grown and worsened in the last few years under the Modi Raj,” it said.
This reflects the disproportionate gains of the elite in the last 11 years of cronyism,” said Ramesh.
“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 Press Information Bureau (PIB) must clarify the origin of this press release and retract it immediately,” the party said.
The Congress further accused the Modi government of a dangerous trend of such “random, ad-hoc statements and declarations”.
“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,” the party concluded.
India