India may soon have to learn to live without foreign aid. The West, which sees India as a development paradox in which nearly 450 million people exist near the poverty line, can get condescending about handing out aid, even if it all goes into areas like public health rather than directly into poverty alleviation or into the defence budget.
Britain’s move to end aid to India after 2015 comes in the wake of a public campaign that alleged some of that aid might be going towards enabling India to acquire aircraft-carriers! The pressure to stop aid to a nation that has huge poverty alleviation programmes like NREGA (whose funding ironically was cut by 17.5 per cent in the Budget, from Rs. 40,000 crores to `33,000 crores) is getting such that rich nations can be expected to behave in an increasingly miserly manner.
A country that aspires to send a mission to Mars is unlikely to project an image that inspires richer countries to line up to offer aid, even in pressing areas like health and education. Considering that our gross tax revenue budgeted for 2012-13 is a phenomenal Rs. 10,77,672 crores, a sum like Rs. 8,000 crores in UK aid should be just a drop in the ocean. It is really up to the government to decline aid if it comes from reluctant quarters, whereas help in critical areas from munificent billionaires like Bill Gates should always be welcome. We must grow up, and be seen as capable of standing on our own feet.
Source : Asian Age
Source : Asian Age
No comments:
Post a Comment