Hindustan Times
                                        Saturday, January 6, 2005

THE WORLD is scratching its head after India decided to say “Thanks, but no thanks” to international aid for tsunami relief. The irony is that because of the dominance of western media - and, therefore, opinion - many Indians too are perplexed by New Delhi foregoing the aid. While many may see the gesture as being solely about national pride, it is much more than that. As the Prime Minster put it, we declined the offer because we didn’t need it, at least at this stage.

Unlike in other Tsunami - affected countries such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and the Maldives, India’s relief infrastructure kicked in to life from Day One. The armed forces not only have done sterling work to recover the dead, save the living and provide survivors with basic requirements such as food and water, but they have also been joined by various other institutions to see to it that affected people do not continue to suffer because of lack of aid. This whole facet of relief is not available to other tsunami-hit countries. In fact, India was the first country to send relief through its navy to Sri Lanka - within hours of the debacle- and at least a week before the US marines reached there, thereby proving that it actually has the where - withal to tackle the less-devastated parts of its own country.There is another important aspect of why it is better to not depend on foreign aid. Disasters such as this leave highly localized effects and require localized responses. It is common sense that the local administration, with the help of national disaster relief institutions, are in a better position to know what is required by the people of, say, Cuddalore than an international agency or an ‘outside’ country that has its own generalized idea of how to provide relief.

No doubt there is much hard work to be done to make affected places and people stand up on their own feet again. But the fact is that international aid would have introduced an unnecessary layer - and its corresponding problems of black marketers’ and wrangling between foreign aid organizations – that we can do without. If India required help, it would have asked for it (as in the past). But this time, it doesn’t. Thus, the polite refusal