Narendra Modi’s Clarification of Malnutrition Remark Reinstates the Same

Chief Minister Narendra Modi's recent remark on malnutrition in Gujarat raised furor across the state on, and his clarification on the same dragged into the news on Friday.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Modi said that the resulted malnutrition in his state was caused by figure-conscious girls in the middle society. Following the uproar on his malnutrition rationale, the CM issued a press statement to make clarify his remark. But unfortunately the clarification issued by him seemed to be reinforcing the same meaning.

The excerpts of the press statement issued by Modi as quoted by India Today read like this:

"We are the first state in the country to raise the issue of malnutrition. It came to our mind that Gujarat is by and large a vegetarian state. And secondly, Gujarat is also a middle-class state. The middle-class is more beauty conscious than health conscious-that is a challenge.

"If a mother tells her daughter to have milk, they will have a fight. She will tell her mother, 'I won't drink milk I will get fat.' They have money but she is beauty conscious, she is not health conscious. So Gujarat being a middle class state is also a problem for me," the press release quoted Modi as saying.

It further read, "So, a lot needs to be explained to both the beauty conscious as well as the health conscious. We have to request to them that there should be a good nutritional situation."

The CM's clarification on his own remark raised question as to what sort of meaning he tried to convey, this being the same statement he had given earlier.