Thiruvananthapuram: Targeting the BJP-led Union government at the Centre over the demolition drive in Delhi, veteran Marxist leader and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan asked whether India's 101st rank in the recent Global Hunger Index can be "erased with bulldozers?"

The CM was referring to the  Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021, released last October, which placed the country in an alarming 101st position.

In a tweet in both English and Hindi, Vijayan also criticised the reported covering up of slums in Gujarat  using curtains ahead of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's visit to the western state.

The senior CPM leader asked whether this problem can be solved by fanning hatred and resorting to communal politics, and said the country needs solutions and not diversions.

"In the 2021 Global Hunger Index, India ranks 101st out of the 116 countries. Can this reality be covered up by curtains and erased with bulldozers? Can this problem be solved by fanning hatred and resorting to communal politics? We need solutions, not diversions!," Vijayan tweeted.

On Thursday, he lavished praise on his party colleagues, including Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat, for their firm stand taken against the demolition conducted by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) in Jahangirpuri as part of its anti-encroachment drive.

The Marxist Party has always stood firm and shown the way in the fight for the rights of the oppressed and marginalised, he had said.

India has slipped to 101st position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 of a total 116 countries, from its 2020 position of 94th and is behind its neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

(With inputs from PTI)