Mumbai, May 28 -- Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Wednesday questioned India's rise to becoming the world's fourth-largest economy, challenging the basis for celebration amid record-high unemployment and declining foreign investment.

Speaking to the media, Raut pointedly remarked that in a nation where 85 crore people still rely on free food grains, such boasts ring hollow.

"In a country where even today, Prime Minister Modi has to provide free food grains to 85 crore poor people, where unemployment is at its highest, and foreign investment has stopped coming in, on what basis are you claiming that we have become the world's fourth-largest economy?" Sanjay Raut said.

On Friday evening, addressing a press conference of the 10th NITI A...