Jean in her blog ‘Cheerful Monk’ quoted a very true statement – “Foreign aid: When the poor people of one country give money to the rich people of another country.”
Here is final realisation in Britain that aid to India ends up in the wrong pockets.
David Cameron, I take my topi off to you. There are a lot of people like me in India who will too.
Our erstwhile Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, before he lost his innocence, and full of idealism, wanted to tackle corruption in India and said that only about 15% of any money slated for a social welfare projects actually got spent on it; the rest got siphoned off in various directions. The figure of 15% was later revised downwards by commentators to 5%. Despite much water having flowed down our rivers, the situation has not changed much since then. There are however signs that in some parts of the country, it is changing and one hopes that the rate of change will get speeded up by the various initiatives announced recently.
Many right thinking Indians have been stating that India is not a poor country but is a rich country with many poor people who get exploited by an unwieldy bureaucratic system which is allowed to flourish in collusion with grass root level politicians. There is exercise of power without taking responsibility for the alleviation of poverty to the most deserving.
“Worthy of the respect of the people are those content with a calm and frugal life.” – Lao Tsu.
Our political and bureaucratic establishment flaunts power and wealth in a most vulgar way. Frugality is what is most lacking in the Indian political dynasties and bureaucratic colluders, that divide up power and tax payers money. India’s new class of the super-rich politico-bureaucratic establishment exploits millions of poor Indians. These poor people are deprived of basic amenities, schools and basic medical care, as well as of human dignity. Not because the funds for improving their lot is not available. They are. The allocated funds just disappear in the pipeline before they reach the poor.
It is an insult to India to offer it “Aid”. Some Indians may swallow such an insult for personal benefit, but I for one, am not among those. I hope that all the other countries, which continue to offer “Aid to India”, also follow David Cameron’s example.