As a matter of fact, the 140-member India’s delegation to Davos was entirely packed with representatives of the 1 per cent, from the CEOs to Shahrukh Khan and Karan Johar. For far too long has this minority of Indians pocketed the spoils of India’s development and Modi’s ‘Sabka Saat, Sabka Vikas’ was a hollow slogan, mouthed at glossy meets such as the WEF.

India under Modi has been a failure. India under Modi slid further behind China and Pakistan on the ‘inclusive development’ front. In the circumstances, the IMF estimate that India’s GDP would grow by 7.4 per cent was nothing to crow about because it was just that – an estimate, nothing more.

According to Oxfam, up to 670 million Indians saw just one per cent increase in their wealth while the richest one per cent stole 73 per cent of the national income. “The wealth of the elite 1 per cent increased by 20913 billion rupees 7 billion, equivalent to the total budget of the Indian government last financial year,” the Oxfam report said. Indian billionaires' wealth increased by $76.5 billion (Rs 4891 billion) - from $247 billion (Rs 15,778 billion) to over $324 billion (Rs 20,676 billion) making India one of the most unequal in the world, the report added.

It was one per cent versus the rest, and nothing short of loot. Modi should not forget that starvation deaths have not stopped in India. Those in power are saying one thing and doing another. The only government policy succeeding has been the deliberate one to line the pockets of the already uncommonly shameless rich.

It would not wrong to say that the rich are being subsidised in India and the poor are being crushed under the burden of poverty. Land has been taken from them, employment does not exist. For whom was Modi wooing global investors at Davos? For who was he hosting the dinner, for the global industry bosses of 18 countries on Monday night? Activists and development economists are worried at the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the rich in India. Last year, 58 per cent of national income went to India's richest one per cent. Modi’s policies that pamper the rich in the name of achieving higher growth have failed.

The growth that occurred has been accompanied by the absolute impoverishment of large numbers. Such inequalities undermined the foundations of India and its survival as a secular democratic republic.

Oxfam said the figures suggested that "approximately two-thirds of billionaire wealth was the product of inheritance, monopoly and cronyism. The report ‘Reward Work Not Wealth’ blamed the race to the bottom between countries on tax and on wages as a top contributor to deepening inequality, along with the crushing of workers' rights. “It would take around 17.5 days for the best-paid executive at a top Indian garment company to earn what a minimum wage worker in rural India will earn in their lifetime (presuming 50 years at work),” the Oxfam report said.

That was the certificate Prime Minister Modi took with him to the WEF. From taking office in 2014, the Modi government has announced schemes to increase spending on infrastructure, including ports and roads, to boost economic growth but it has fared miserably in combating poverty. Its efforts to cut down inequality and combating poverty have been woefully inadequate. “It needs to stop the super-rich and the corporates from continuing to rob India of its wealth," Nisha Agrawal, CEO of Oxfam India said. The government has to invest more in agriculture and implement fully social protection schemes such as rural job scheme and the Food Security Act that already exist.

India's wealth inequality also contributes to lack of access to quality medical care for the poor. Oxfam India urged Modi before he left for Davos to tax the super-rich and ensure that the Indian economy “works for everyone and not just the fortunate few”. In an online survey conducted by Oxfam, 73 per cent Indians said they wanted “the gap between the rich and poor to be addressed very urgently”. In the survey with a sample size of 11,000 Indians, a majority of respondents said CEOs should accept pay cuts up to 60 per cent.

Oxfam said it used calculations to compare returns to shareholders and CEO compensation with returns to ordinary workers for its analysis. It used data from Credit Suisse's annual Global Wealth Databook and the Forbes billionaires list. India lifted 120 million people from extreme poverty between 1990 and 2013 but one out of two Indians remained vulnerable to falling back into poverty. India's march to reducing poverty has been significantly slower compared to China. Over the same 1990-2013 period, China reduced the number of people living in extreme poverty from 756 million to 25 million. The message to Modi was pretty clear: It will be very difficult for you to return to power in 2019, not with your record. (IPA Service)