Success of Chandrayaan-3 roils fringe Brits but here's truth about UK's 'aid' to India

There must be really something wrong with the British economy as UK’s fringe elements resort to mocking India’s success to earn a living.

As India’s Chandrayaan-3 soft-landed on the Moon Wednesday evening, it ended up roiling some imperialist Brits big time.

For instance, Patrick Christys, who describes himself as a presenter at ‘GBNews’, demanded Wednesday that India return £2.3 billion to UK allegedly given in aid during 2016-21. 

“We should not be giving money to countries with a space programme as a rule. If you can afford to fire a rocket to the dark side of the moon, you shouldn’t be coming to us with your handout.”

Another British TV presenter Sophie Corcoran posted on X, "The uk shouldn’t be sending aid to countries with space programs so advance they can land rockets on the other side of the moon."

While keeping this ignorant and racist rant aside, let’s first get the facts straight on UK’s aid to India.

Back in 2011, India’s then-finance minister Pranab Mukherjee unequivocally told the Britishers that India didn’t require any aid from UK because it was “peanuts.”

"We do not require the aid. It is a peanut in our total development exercises (expenditure)," he had said in the upper house of the Indian Parliament.

In fact, in 2011, the UK govt itself acknowledged that its aid had almost no impact on India’s development. In 2011, the International Development Committee (IDC) of the UK Parliament published an inquiry entitled The Future of DFID’s Programme in India. 

The inquiry concluded that UK aid could only have a marginal impact on India’s development because it made up only a tiny proportion of India’s gross domestic product.

And now in 2023, when India’s GDP has already surpassed that of UK, it goes without saying how UK’s aid programme has become totally inconsequential.

So, why doesn’t UK stop its aid to India?

The fact is, it has already stopped and now UK’s funding is largely focused on “business investments”. 

The Guardian published a report in March 2023, which quoted the UK’s Foreign Office spokesperson as saying, “Since 2015 the UK has given no financial aid to the government of India. Most of our funding now is focused on business investments which help create new markets and jobs for the UK, as well as India. UK investments are also helping tackle shared challenges such as climate change.” 

Given that UK’s economy today is mired in miseries and needs India’s helping hand for coming back to life, London uses this investment to deepen its ties with New Delhi and seek the much-awaited trade deals.

All in all, UK’s “aid” to India is nothing but a desperate attempt to keep India in good humour to reap economic dividends.

In the end, I would like to offer a gentle reminder to all those enraged Westerns questioning India’s space programme that:
UK still owes us $45 trillion, which it stole from India during its rule spanning for almost 200 years.

Britain would completely collapse today if it is forced to pay back the money it drained from India.

While India’s space programme today dwarfs those of UK, the country has also witnessed a sharp decline in poverty in the last five years. Almost 135 million people escaped poverty in India during this period.

While Patrick Christys mocks India on poverty, it must be noted that about one-fifth of Brits today live below the poverty line.

But thanks to X monetisation, I’m sure Patrick must be doing well financially by garnering massive engagement on Indian social media.

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)