While Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh questioned the US President’s knowledge of economics, Minister of State for Home and AICC spokesperson Shakeel Ahmad said India is a sovereign nation and “nobody should lecture us”.

CPI(M) Politburo member S R Pillai said, “It is too silly a statement to react”. The Samajwadi Party termed Bush’s statement as “illogical”. At an interactive session on economy in Missouri earlier, Bush argued that there are many factors for the present crisis, only one of which was investment on biofuels like ethanol.

“Worldwide there is increasing demand. There turns out to be prosperity in the developing world, which is good,” he said. “It also, however, increases demand. So, for example, just as an interesting thought for you, 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,” he added.

“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,” he said.

The comments come close on the heels of Rice’s theory that “apparent improvement” in the diets of people in India and China and consequent food export caps is among the causes of the current global 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,” said Ramesh.

Ahmad said such “unusual statements” vindicate the UPA government’s point that inflation is not only in India, it is in Europe and the US also. “But at the same time, it seems from such unusual statements that the ban on exports that we imposed on certain food items is hurting somewhere. It is true that the quality of our food has improved, which indicates that growth is percolating down to every section of our society. But India is a sovereign nation and nobody should lecture us on what we should eat and what we should not,” he added.

“The statement is not only unwarranted but is completely illogical. In fact, statements from the US on this issue, first by Rice and now by Bush, are indicative of their looking-down approach towards India that is progressing. It is absurd,” said SP leader in Lok Sabha, Ram Gopal Yadav, who also heads the Parliamentary standing committee on agriculture.

“There is price rise worldwide, in fact we are opposing the government here on this issue, but it is absurd to blame Indians for global surge in price. The main culprit is the food availability worldwide, which is failing to meet the demands,” said Yadav.