The Congress accused the Modi government of “intellectual dishonesty” and data manipulation on Monday, because of its interpretation of the World Bank’s Poverty and Equity Brief for India.
“The Modi Govt scaled new heights of intellectual dishonesty when its Press (dis)Information Bureau put out a release day before yesterday. This has been brutally exposed. Our statement on this fraud," Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh wrote on X.
Ramesh said there was a deliberate and misleading presentation of inequality data by the government’s Press Information Bureau (PIB).
"Aap chronology samajhiye —
• The World Bank released its Poverty and Equity Brief for India in April 2025.
• Immediately after, the Indian National 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 5th July, 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.
• In a press statement issued on 6th July, the Indian National 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."
Ramesh said that the government deliberately distorted economic metrics to arrive at a favourable conclusion.
"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.
• 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.
• The choice to measure 'consumption inequality' in India was also deliberate. 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.
• Income inequality in India has grown, and worsened in the last few years under the Modi Raj.
• Wealth inequality in India is even higher than income inequality, reflecting the disproportionate gains of the elite in the last 11 years of cronyism."
Calling the PIB release a "fraudulent analysis”, Ramesh said it reflects either "a disturbing lack of talent" in the government or "an equally disturbing lack of intellectual integrity."
The Congress also said that the PIB must clarify as to the origins of this press release and retract it.
“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 former minister wrote.
He concluded by saying that the Modi government cannot wish away stark reality by doctoring data.
The PIB has not issued a clarification or response to the Congress party's allegations.
