The Congress party has raised serious concerns over India’s growing inequality, describing it as a “huge social and economic crisis” fueled by government policies favoring a select group of industrialists. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh accused the Narendra Modi government of designing foreign, economic, and industrial policies to benefit a handful of corporate giants, leaving small businesses and the lower and middle classes struggling to survive.
Ramesh debunked a recent Press Information Bureau (PIB) claim, based on World Bank data, that India is the fourth most economically equal country globally, calling it “completely preposterous.” He cited a Hurun India report to highlight the stark wealth divide, noting that the top five industrial houses control assets worth about 18% of India’s GDP, with the Ambani group alone holding wealth equivalent to 12.7% of GDP. “These five families possess assets worth 60 lakh crores in an economy valued at 331 lakh crores,” Ramesh said, adding that their wealth exceeds the economies of many smaller nations.
“For the past 11 years, the Prime Minister has focused on enriching a few industrialists,” Ramesh alleged, arguing that these policies have sidelined small and medium enterprises and eroded the financial stability of ordinary citizens. “The lower and middle classes are left with empty pockets, zero savings, and no disposable income,” he said, warning that this inequality threatens India’s social and economic stability.
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Ramesh urged immediate reforms, including revising the GST framework to ease its burden on the poor, ending corporate favoritism, and expanding welfare programs like MGNREGA and the National Food Security Act. He also called for conducting the long-delayed population census to better address poverty and inequality.
As India confronts this deepening divide, the Congress party’s critique highlights the urgent need for equitable policies to narrow the gap between the wealthy elite and the majority, amid growing concerns that unchecked inequality could destabilize the nation’s social and economic fabric.
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