Mr Datta-Ray, former editor of the Statesman, has
"humorously postulated what the answer would be to anyone questioning British aid to India, saying that the likely retort would be along the lines of: “Well, after they’ve paid for their military and space programmes, there’s very little left for food. Hardly their fault is it you fascist, racist, holocaust denier!”
Here' the rest of the piece:
India’s foremost journalist and supernumerary fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, has called for the ending of British foreign aid to India, calling it demeaning for his country.
Writing in the Indian Telegraph, Mr Sunanda K Datta-Ray said that it was “demeaning for a country to accept foreign money as it is to export economic refugees, whether highly qualified professionals to America or labourers to Singapore.”
Mr Datta-Ray, former editor of The Statesman in Calcutta and New Delhi, correspondent for the International Herald Tribune and Time magazine, and editorial consultant to Singapore’s The Straits Times newspaper, added that “surrendering British aid would remove an unnecessary irritant. It would also be good for India’s self-respect.”
He went on to reveal that India actually has its own foreign aid programme, called the “Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation” programme. It was launched in 1964 and now helps 156 countries, including Afghanistan.
The bizarre situation has therefore arisen where British taxpayers give untold millions to India, whose government in turn dishes out foreign aid to other countries.
“Many Britons feel that their country cannot afford to lavish £825 million on India over three years,” Mr Datta-Ray said, pointing out that the British taxpayer had already provided India with £1,045 million in aid over the previous five years.
Mr Datta-Ray then humorously postulated what the answer would be to anyone questioning British aid to India, saying that the likely retort would be along the lines of: “Well, after they’ve paid for their military and space programmes, there’s very little left for food. Hardly their fault is it you fascist, racist, holocaust denier!”
He also pointed out some harsh economic realities: the International Monetary Fund fears Britain’s public debt might double to a record 100 percent of the gross domestic product over the next five years and that unemployment (2.4 million without jobs) is at a 14-year high in the UK.
“The image of grinding poverty dies hard despite the US ruling that while Pakistan and Bangladesh are ‘developing’ countries, India is a ‘transforming’ nation (which justified slashing American aid by 35 percent to $81 million) and analysts constantly coupling India with China as the economic powers of the future,” he continued.
“India should now review the entire aid programme and the cost in terms of image, repayment and conditionalities,” he said.
* The British National Party has made it very clear that there will be no foreign aid of any sort paid out while British citizens suffer poverty and the lack of essential services.
This is in stark contrast to the Labour and Tory parties, both of whom have undertaken to increase foreign aid despite British people suffering economically.
The British National Party — Blog — Foremost Indian Journalist Calls for End of ?Demeaning? British Aid to India
