Ray Titus finds nothing wrong with what Bush said:

What the President was an economic fact. There was no ‘blame’, in fact his statement was a compliment to a country that is demanding better products and services for consumption. Judge for yourselves.

Arun checks reactions from across the world, including a news report from Arab News, which says:

Figures released by the US Department of Agriculture for 2007 say each Indian eats only 178 kg of grain in a year, while a US citizen consumes 1,046 kg. Likewise, milk consumption per person per year is 36 kg in India, while in the United States is 78 kg. While each American consumes 45.5 kg poultry meat per year, an Indian takes in only 1.9 kg.

But wasn’t the American President talking about the America within India, and not the average Indian?

Kerala Views blames subsidies for bio-fuels:

However, the critics of Bush’s statement have reacted somewhat superficially, ignoring some hard facts. The first point is that there is some truth in what Bush is saying. Second is that it is not just diversion of good grains for fuel production that is harming the world most, but subsidies for bio fuels.

But the question remains: if the Americans are producing less food, why aren’t the Indians and others producing more?

Hindustani says ‘Dubya is dumb’:

The greedy guzzlers of all world energy, Americans, have suddenly discovered that Indians eat a lot and want to eat better.

Rohit asks: ‘how dumb can Indian politicians and media get’?

That it wasn’t an inadverent error is clear from another story the Times of India ran a few days back on the United Nations attributing rising food prices to the demands of the growing middle class in India and China. In fact, Bush’s speech sounds like a recycled version of the U.N statement. Notice the entirely different treatment to essentially similar issues: While Bush was ”blaming” India and China, the U.N was ”raising alarm!” Apparently, a mundane UN agency isn’t sexy enough to be sensationalized.