India belittle British Aid

[DTCwordfan]

Surprised that AOG hasn'tpicked up on this, perhaps he is sleeping last night off

Sunday Telegraph front page reports that Pranab Mukherjee, Osbourne's opposite, has said that they do not require our aid and that "It is a peanut in our total development exercise."

Answer - Cameron/Clegg et al should immediately abort any aid to India, except in future disaster relief.

Agree or Disagree?

[sandyRoe]

The recipients of our help would hardly agree. Nor do I.

[NOX]

I imagine he's swiging the 'nationalism- we don't need you because we're doing such a great job' sword about because he's a politician and that's what they do.
However I'm fairly sure he doesn't speak for the millions of people in India who are suffering and who are very grateful for our aid. So should we curtail that because of one self serving politician? No of course not.

[DTCwordfan]

I agree - but when they terminate their space programme or match what the spend on that to support their poor.

[annadomino]

We have poor, we have homeless - whatever happened to the adage "charity begins at home".

[d9f1c7]

Agree

[NOX]

We have poor, we have homeless - whatever happened to the adage "charity begins at home".
It was found by most thinking people to be a load of old cobblers ;-)

[sandyRoe]

Annadomino, few of the children of the poor in the UK are in danger of starving to death.

[jomifl]

And few of the starving millions in India will be helped by the thousands of Indian millionaires, most notably the Mittal brothers who are among the richest people in the world. (Their fortune is partly based on destitute people including children grubbing for coal to (supply their blast furnaces) in waste tips).

[sandyRoe]

We really can't do much to relieve the poverty and suffering in the world. So, do we light a candle or curse the darkness?

[Baldric]

If, as stated, they have said they do not require our aid then we should stop giving it.

[DTCwordfan]

There are more deserving countries around the world as well as our economy here if the Indian politicians have this dismissive attitude - let their own wealthy contribute - and stop investing in excesses like space and weapons to help their own needy.....or even military planes?

[Anlyn]

Exactly DT, I thought the idea of 'aid' was actually a bung to keep India sweet, as they have a strong economy excellent trade opportunities. The fact they've decided to not favor British interests and have now snubbed our contributions...They can go F**k themselves.

[Ellipsis]

I find this story quite bizarre ...

> http://www.telegraph....nt-want-your-aid.html
> But officials at DFID, Britain’s Department for International Development, told the Indians that cancelling the programme would cause “grave political embarrassment” to Britain, according to sources in Delhi.

I'd love to understand the politics of these decisions a bit more and why avoiding "grave political embarrassment" is worth hundreds of millions of pounds per year.

I'm all for Britain giving aid, but not to people who don't want it at the expense of people who do ...

[Gromit]

But the aid is needed so that India's millionaires can continue to not pay much tax. The money they keep they can spend on British products like Rolls Royces and keep British workers in jobs.

http://www.dnaindia.c...les-up-7-fold_1492937

[naomi24]

Agree.

[nungate]

I agree. If our "aid" is a so called sweetener to encourage trade with the British then it has failed. They have ordered jets from the French as opposed to the Euro fighter which is made here in the UK with some of our European partners and by all accounts is a superior aircraft. (if I remember rightly the headline read something along the lines of They chose Asda over the Waitrose option!) Charity begins at home we take care of our own first and then the neediest of other countries, India doesn't seem to need our aid. We can light little candles in places other than India

[Gromit]

nungate

The Indians have not ordered any aircraft yet. They have just stated that the French aircraft more suits their requirements than the EuroFighter. That is not to say the deal is done, they Indians could still end up ordering the EuroFighter.

Thanks to peeny pinching by the Trasury (and our partners Treasuries, the EuroFighter is short on "must have" specs.

// Key to the Indian decision, said one senior defence source in Delhi, was the country’s wish for a radar and set of weapons which already exist on Rafale — but which are not currently present on Typhoon.
The French jet can launch a wide suite of smart weapons including Scalp, an air-launched cruise missile, Exocet, an anti-ship missile, and AASM, a precision-guided bomb with extended “stand-off” capability allowing it to be dropped from further away, reducing the risk to the pilot from anti-aircraft fire.
It also has an advanced reconnaissance pod and the latest electronic scanned array radar. This combination of capabilities proved highly effective in the recent war over Libya.
Typhoon currently has none of these things. The RAF badly wants the aircraft to have Scalp's British equivalent Storm Shadow — along with the anti-tank Brimstone missile, a reconnaissance pod, and the radar. //

http://www.telegraph....-Indian-jet-deal.html

[TTG]

I doubt all the 280m will reach the poor of India.

[owdhamer]

leave them sat on their haunches which is normal when they meet problems