In Defense of Bush’s Gaffe on Rising Food Prices

The world’s second most populous nation is up-in-arms over remarks recently made by President Bush, as he attempted to explain rising food and energy prices to an audience in Maryland.

The president said the following:

“There are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That’s bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population,” said Bush. “And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food. And so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up.”

Among the reactions by Indian politicians, according to this analysis/op-ed from the International Business Times of India, were these:

Minister of State for Commerce, Jairam Ramesh: “George Bush has never been known for his knowledge of economics. And he has just proved once again how comprehensively wrong he is.”

West Bengal’s Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee: “It is preposterous for anyone to say that global food crisis, including the crisis in America, is because Indians are eating more. It is needless to say what the Indians get to eat or what they (Americans) eat. This only shows how he has lost his senses” … he added that Bush’s remark was nothing more than a “cruel joke.”

But striking a conciliatory note, Surojit Chatterjee writes for the Business Times: “Being well-informed or choosing words carefully are not his specialty. … Let’s be forgiving to the U.S. President. … Let us stop pointing fingers at one another and receive Bush’s remark with a pinch of salt and a hearty laugh.”

By Surojit Chatterjee

May 7, 2008

India – The International Business Times – Original Article (English)

Let’s admit it. Bush committed a gaffe when he said that the growing middle class in India has triggered an increased demand for “better nutrition,” which in turn has led to higher food prices.

Bush said [on May 2]: “There are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That’s bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population,” said Bush. “And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food. And so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up.”

Indian political leaders were up in arms after the remark, and proceeded to shred the U.S. President to pieces – verbally of course.

“George Bush has never been known for his knowledge of economics. And he has just proved once again how comprehensively wrong he is,” said Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Commerce.

“It is preposterous for anyone to say that global food crisis, including the crisis in America, is because Indians are eating more. It is needless to say what the Indians get to eat or what they (Americans) eat. This only shows how he has lost his senses,” said West Bengal’s leftist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, adding that Bush’s remark was nothing more than a “cruel joke.”

Interestingly, none of India’s political leaders, who were so quick to fly off the handle, stopped to challenge Bush about how he arrived at his figures.

Last year a study by the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that India’s middle class numbered only 50 million out of a population of 1.1 billion.

India’s National Council for Applied Economic Research also estimates that there were 56 million people in households earning $4,400 to $21,800 a year, which it defines as middle class.

So where did Bush get his extra 300 million or so middle class Indians?

Perhaps also – from the National Council for Applied Economic Research, which reports that there are, “220 million “aspiring Indians,” living in households earning between $2,000 and $4,400 a year, who can afford to buy a motorbike, a refrigerator and a television.”

Together that makes a “consuming class” almost as large as the population of the United States.

Perhaps that’s what Bush meant. And perhaps Indian leaders should keep quiet in this regard, because, like Shyam Saran, the former Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Nuclear Issue, they must also see that Bush’s remark had a positive aspect to it as well. “It (the remark) is a recognition of the distance India has traveled as a result of its successful economic development,” Saran said, adding that Bush had spoken of the growing prosperity of India when mentioning the country’s middle class, which is now bigger than the entire population of the U.S.

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