Addressing a social event in The Hague, Netherlands, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has warned that a large part of the world’s population will be pushed back into poverty if the war in West Asia is not stopped quickly.
“The world is facing new challenges,” he said while addressing the Indian diaspora in the Netherlands during the second leg of his five-nation European tour.
“First came the corona (virus) pandemic, then wars started breaking out and now there is an energy crisis. This decade is turning into a decade of disasters for the world,” PM Modi explained in Hindi.
He issued a stark warning of the consequences of inaction. If the cascading effect of these crises is not immediately addressed, he said, “the gains of the last many decades would be washed away and a large part of the world’s population would be pushed back into poverty.”
Why PM Modi said this
The prime minister’s comments came after he urged citizens to follow a raft of austerity measures as India faces the economic fallout from stalled peace talks between the US and Iran.
Before leaving for his European tour, Prime Minister Modi referred to the Covid-19 handbook and asked citizens to work from home and meet online to conserve fuel. He has reportedly reduced the size of his convoy – a move followed by many leaders of the ruling BJP. The Supreme Court also announced its move to hear cases online.
In addition, the Prime Minister appealed to Indians not to buy gold and avoid foreign travel for a year as a measure to save foreign exchange reserves.
Prime Minister Modi’s appeals were followed by the Union government’s announcement of hike in petrol and diesel prices ₹3 per liter. The price of milk also increased ₹2 per litre, while the cost of commercial LPG (cooking gas) has doubled in the last two months – a cylinder now costs more than ₹3000.
Economists and analysts have warned that the price of petrol and diesel should continue to rise, around ₹10 per liter in the coming weeks. They warned that this would directly and indirectly increase consumer price inflation (CPI) and ordinary households are expected to feel the pinch.
