Union Minister and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh described the assessment as “comprehensively wrong” and the AICC called it “completely erroneous”.
The Congress and the Left, in turn, blamed the US-led developed world for diverting crop land for biofuel production for the current food crisis.
“George Bush has never been known for his knowledge of economics. And he has just proved once again how comprehensively wrong he is. To say that the demand for food in India is causing increase in global good prices is completely wrong,” Ramesh said.
“India is a not a net food importer. It is a food exporter. The assumption that local prices are increasing because of a changed India is completely erroneous,” AICC spokesperson Manish Tewari said.
“The crisis is actually because of diversion of arable land in the developed world for ethanol production and because of changes in the climate pattern,” he said in a veiled attack on the US and its allies.
The Left expectedly went hammer and tongs at the US President, with CPM general secretary Prakash Karat calling the remark “insensible”. “At a time when millions of people in India are unable to get enough food to eat and suffer from malnutrition, Mr Bush’s insensible remarks about India’s prosperity affecting global food prices are adding insult to injury,” he said.
“The US policy of subsidising and promoting biofuel out of crops is the major reason for the shortage and spurt in food prices. This is what President Bush has sought to cover up,” he said.
CPI’s D Raja said, “The Bush administration is trying to cover up its own fault by shifting the blame to developing countries. It is the US which has shifted agricultural production from food grain to biofuel, thereby creating the food crisis and pushing up the prices.”
The BJP too attacked Bush. Party spokesman Prakash Javadekar said, “The statement by Mr Bush fixes into the frame of irrelevancy of the statements of the UPA ministers. It is the same as (Civil Aviation Minister) Praful Patel saying the price rise is due to change in food habits.”
