After getting becoming the butt of jokes and rampant criticism for trivializing poverty by going to town with a blind and brainless assessment of poverty numbers by the Planning Commission, which showed a massive slide in the number of the poor to a shade less than 22 percent, some sense returned to the Congress managers and changed its tune to dub the poverty line as "unrealistic". Three senior leaders joined the opposition yesterday to criticism the data with Digvijaya Singh, Kapil Sibal and Rajiv Shukla saying the numbers are a joke as they don’t reflect the reality.
The all-round assault on the Congress seems to have resulted in the course correction that reflected in the disapprovals issued by Union minister Kapil Sibal and party general secretary Digvijaya Singh yesterday questioned the poverty line as defined by the Planning Commission report that has pegged the number of the poor to just 21.9 percent, a massive decline from 37.2 per cent over seven years between 2004-05 and 2011-12. Minister of state for planning Rajiv Shukla too said the Plan panel report has not been accepted by the government and a new committee is examining the issue. He slammed the BJP-led NDA regime for having fixed poverty at a daily earning of Rs 16.
Singh tweeted that the criteria for fixing poverty line is too abstract and demanded it be linked to malnourishment and anaemia. Sibal challenged the method of calculating poverty, fixed at monthly salary of Rs 4,080 and Rs 5,000 in rural and urban areas, respectively. "If the Plan panel said those who live above Rs 5,000 a month are not at the poverty line, obviously there is something wrong with the definition of poverty. How can anybody live at Rs 5,000?" he asked in a public function. The open questioning of the Plan panel figures coincides with a vigorous debate in public domain in which political parties and activists have joined hands to slam the government for mocking the poor.
Congress spokespersons had rushed out to tom-tom the figures showing a dip in poverty. The estimate is based on poverty line set at Rs 27.33 a day per person for rural areas, and Rs 33.33 a day in urban areas. The spokespersons compounded matters when responding to attack that the Congress had endorsed an unrealistic definition of poverty for political reasons and claimed that hearty meals could be had for Rs 12 even Rs 5 in Mumbai and Delhi respectively, the two costliest cities in the country. With election mood warming up, the party seems to lack the stomach for polemics on the politically sensitive issue.
Last Thursday, the party spokespersons regretted their statements on cheap meals in a belated damage control exercise. The defensive posture marks a volte-face given that the Congress waved the Plan panel report from party podium to claim credit for bringing down poverty, calling it a result of its inclusive growth policies. Congress thinks the debate on poverty line is misplaced since the government has already divorced the poverty line from entitlements, like the food security law which would cater to 67 per cent of the population. However, there is a realization that debating poverty can be tricky in the prevailing pessimism over economic downturn.
