Miscellaneous - This Day That Age   

dated December 14, 1955: TTK on foreign aid

In a policy speech made before the Associated Chambers of Commerce in Calcutta on December 13, Mr. T.T. Krishnamachari, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, declared that the real test of international interest in India was not the giving of doles but sharing technical knowledge and helping her to industrialise. "We accept help from whatever quarter it comes, so long as it is not tied to any political strings," he said. The Minister told foreign investors that if they could not infuse confidence in the people with whom they were dealing in India, "we have to look for assistance to other quarters. We are not going to alter the structure of our politics and shall not sell our freedom no matter what may be the temptation. Personally, I am very much against going and asking for foreign aid to execute the Second Five-Year Plan. In one sense, I suppose it is a projection of one's individual leaning in this matter. I hate to beg, and I refuse to permit any of my colleagues to go and beg and say `we wish to go through this Plan and, therefore, will you help us?' We know that we won't ask for aid. For, naturally, a man who gives us aid lays down his terms. So far as foreign capital or foreign help is concerned, there does not seem to be much hope of the Indian point of view being appreciated by those countries, which are better off than us, and which might be in a position to help us."

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