Raj Babbar regrets Rs. 12 meal remark

Congress spokesperson Raj Babbar on Friday attempted to downplay the controversy he spawned by professing that Rs. 12 can buy a complete meal in Mumbai, saying he did not intend to hurt the sentiments of the party or others.

"If my statement has pained someone then I regret it. I don't want my statement to harm my party in any way," he said.

Babbar's clarification came after the Congress Party made it clear that it did not endorse his opinion.

"We do not agree with Rs. 15 and Rs. 5 statement of some leaders," tweeted AICC General Secretary and in-charge of Communications Department Ajay Maken.

After Babbar's statement on Wednesday, his party colleague Rasheed Masood yesterday claimed that 'one can eat well' for Rs 5 in the national capital.

"You can eat well for Rs 5 in the Jama Masjid area of Delhi," he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had lashed out at the Congress leaders over their remarks, and said that the UPA Government is just trying to perpetuate poverty.

"They are very happy to have a Rs 34 poverty line. While rolling down the benchmark, they are trying to roll people out of BPL (Below Poverty Line) category, depriving them of welfare benefits. This is an anti-poor statement," said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

"These are tactics of diverting attention from other issues. They are trying to reduce the number of poor," added another BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi.

Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Atul Anjan had also lashed out at Babbar, saying he was reciting scripted dialogues.

"Raj Babbar is in a habit of reciting scripted dialogues. This script was written by Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh," he said.

The Planning Commission had earlier on Tuesday said poverty ratio in the country had declined to 21.9 percent in 2011-12 from 37.2 percent in 2004-05 on account of increase in per capita consumption.

Using the Tendulkar methodology, the commission estimated the national poverty line for rural areas at Rs 816 per capita per month and for urban areas at Rs 1,000 per capita per month for 2011-12.

This would mean that the people whose daily consumption of goods and services exceed Rs 33.33 in cities and Rs 27.20 in villages are not poor.