Bush remarks on food crisis spark anger in India [View All]

Source: Reuters

NEW DELHI — A remark by U.S. President George W. Bush saying India was partly responsible for rising global food prices has sparked a nationalistic storm across the political spectrum, with the Defence Minister calling it a “cruel joke”.

The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India's main opposition party, threatened on Monday to force a parliamentary debate on Mr. Bush's remarks that India's increasingly prosperous middle classes were helping push up prices.

The political uproar highlighted how quickly a latent anti-U.S. nationalism in India could rear its head despite years of diplomatic rapprochement. It also underscored how food price rises have become a huge electoral issue in India.

“U.S. policies are also responsible for the food grain shortage,” Defence Minister A.K. Antony told local media on Sunday, saying that official encouragement of biofuels in the United States was causing food shortages.

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Who else would like to be a fly on the wall next time he needs to call someone in India to ensure his computer is on?