Bush remarks on food crisis spark anger in India

By Alistair Scrutton

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A remark by 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 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.

He added that Bush's remark was a "cruel joke".

"Bush has never been known for his knowledge of economics," India's Junior Trade Minister Jairam Ramesh said.

"He has just proved once again how comprehensively wrong he is. To say that the demand for food in India is causing an increase in global good prices is completely wrong.

Rapid economic growth and better wages, powered by nearly two decades of liberal reforms that have made India's economy the third-largest in Asia, have fuelled demand for farm products at a time when output has stagnated.