Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced flak after he compared Kerala to Somalia during his election rally in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on Monday, 9 May. Infant mortality rates among the Scheduled Tribe community in Kerala are worse than in Somalia.
The office of independent Member of Parliament Rajeev Chandrasekhar, in an attempt to give him the benefit of the doubt, wrote to The Quint saying the numbers he was citing may have been in reference to the Human Development Index (HDI) calculated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
It said:
A study by the International Journal of Advanced Remote Sensing and GIS (JRSGIS) cited by Chandrashekhar’s office said that the HDI of one of the three major tribal regions of Kerala – Attappady Block of Palakkad District – is at par with the HDI of some African countries like Ethiopia, Niger, and Somalia.
The report cited by MP Chandrashekhar’s office, titled “Estimation and evaluation of the hydrological status of ponds in Peruvemba Panchayat, Palakkad District, Kerala” (Page 20) reads:
However, the argument falls weak on the following fronts:
An earlier version of this article called Rajeev Chandrashekhar a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). We apologise for the mistake.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)