India Rejects Blame for Higher Global Food Prices

印反击美将粮价高涨归咎印度说法

　



Politicians across the Indian political spectrum are condemning President Bush's remark, linking high food prices in the West to a growing middle class in India. Indians are pointing the finger back at the United States.

　

印度各党派政治人物最近纷纷谴责布什总统将西方粮价高涨和印度中产阶层兴起有关的说法。印度现在把粮价上涨的矛头，倒过来指向美国。

The governing coalition and opposition in India rarely agree on much, but they are united in condemning the American president for saying a growing demand for food grains by India's middle class is partly to blame for the surge in global food prices.

　

印度的执政联盟和反对党派很少意见一致，但是他们现在却一致谴责美国总统布什所说的印度中产阶层对粮食日增的需求，是目前全球粮价上涨的部分原因。

Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony calls President Bush's comment "a cruel joke" contending that U.S. policies, including advocating bio-fuels, are responsible for higher food prices.

　

印度国防部长安东尼表示，布什总统的这种说法是“一个残酷的笑话”。他并且指责是美国的政策，包括提倡生物能源的政策，才应该为全球粮价高涨负责。

M.A. Nagvi, the vice president of the largest opposition force, the Bharatiya Janata Party, says President Bush is shifting from his earlier role of global "bomb inspector" to world "bread inspector."

　

印度最大的反对党印度人民党副主席那吉维表示，布什总统已经从早些时候扮演的“全球炸弹检查者”的角色，转变成“世界面包检查者”的角色。

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, a key national Communist leader, says the American president "has gone out of his mind."

　

印度西孟加拉邦首席部长布达戴布.巴塔恰吉是印度共产党的一位全国性领袖，他说，布什总统简直“不知所云”。

Mr. Bush made the remark Saturday, in response to a question following a speech he delivered on the economy and trade in the U.S. state of Missouri.

　

布什总统上星期六在答复记者询问时，说了这番话。此前，布什总统在美国的密苏里州发表了一项有关经济和贸易的演说。

A notable critic of America's food policy on India, physicist-turned-environmental-activist Vandana Shiva says Mr. Bush had two reasons for making the comment.

　

批评美国将粮价归咎印度的一位著名人士是由物理学家转变成环保人士的万达纳.希瓦女士。她说，布什这样说有两个理由。

"One is to fuel xenophobia and to say the problem is someone else's, to distract the American public. And, second, is to continue the myth of globalization, to make it look like globalization is bringing benefits to countries like India, when it's not," said Shiva.

　

她说：“一个理由是缺油恐惧症，因此必须强调这是别人引起的问题，以转移美国民众的注意力。另外一个理由是继续全球化的迷思，要表现出好像是全球化给像印度这样的国家带来好处，而事实并非如此。”

Indian experts, citing data from here and from the United States, say American per capita food consumption is three to five times that of Indians.

　

根据印度和美国的资料，印度的专家指出，美国人均粮食消耗量是印度的三到五倍。

Ecologist Shiva argues Indians, overall, are eating less, not more, despite a growing middle class here.

"Per capita consumption of food has dropped from 177 kilograms per capita per year to 152 in the last decade and a half. Instead of Mr. Bush citing that 350 million middle class, he should be citing the Indian children being denied. One million a year are dying for lack of food," added Shiva.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week also cited the rising affluence of Indians and Chinese for playing a role in pushing up food and oil prices.

　

美国国务卿赖斯上个星期也提到，印度和中国日增的富裕，在促使粮价和油价上涨这件事上，扮演了一定角色。

Some economists say Indian and Chinese cost controls and subsidies for fuel and food shield their rising middle classes from the true impact of rising prices.

　

有些经济学家说，印度和中国的成本控制以及对油料和粮食的补贴，使他们日增的中产阶层免于价格上涨的实际冲击。

India imports about 80 percent of its fuel, while China has become the second-largest importer of oil.

　

印度的石油有百分之八十依赖进口，而中国则是世界第二大石油进口国。

India was self-sufficient in food for decades, but has begun importing wheat again, in recent years. China is faced with the traditional challenge of feeding 20 percent of the world's population on only seven percent of the planet's farmland.

　

好几十年来印度的粮食都自给自足，但是最近几年又再度开始进口小麦。而中国的传统挑战则是，要以全球百分之七的耕地，养活世界百分之二十的人口。

The Confederation of Indian Industry, representing 7,000 business entities, blames the rising food prices on diversion of crops to bio-fuels, an increase in droughts and subsidies to growers which encourage them to leave land fallow, to maintain higher global prices. The group announced, Sunday, it is establishing a task force to investigate India's soaring food prices.

　

代表属下七千家企业的印度工业联盟，则将粮价的上涨归咎于以下几个不同的原因：农作物被转用于生产生物能源；越来越多的干旱天气；以及对农民的补贴。这些补贴鼓励农民将农地休耕以维持比较高的全球粮价。印度工业联盟星期天宣布，他们将成立一个行动小组来调查印度粮价为什么上涨。