http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1113107.cms
Blair blamed for Indian farmers' deaths IANS[ TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2005 04:11:59 PM ] LONDON: The British government had its back to the wall over its development policies on Tuesday after claims that it paid a think tank to enforce needless privatisation of state units in India's Andhra Pradesh - a move that contributed to thousands of farmer suicides. Christian Aid, the international non-governmental organisation, said in a devastating report published on Monday that in India, unfettered liberalisation policies backed by the British government had led to a crisis in agriculture, spiralling rural debt and an epidemic of suicide among poor farmers. The group says that more than 4,000 farmers have committed suicide in the southern Indian state since the so-called 'reforms' initiated by ousted Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu's "hard-line liberalising regime", in part bankrolled by the British government. Astonishingly, the report, titled 'The Damage Done: Aid, Death and Dogma,' revealed that the privatisation was implemented not by Britain's Department for International Development (DfID), but by the Adam Smith Institute, a right-wing think tank. While DfID, created by the centre-left Labour government under Prime Minister Tony Blair, has won praise for its development policies, the Adam Smith Institute is well-known for its close ideological proximity to the opposition Conservative Party. In a statement, DfID's deputy head in India Howard Taylor also said the department does not support unfettered free trade or forced liberalisation and that "it is for the state or national governments with which DfID works to determine what economic reforms they undertake". "This is not just bizarre - in fact, many people in Britain have been extremely worried that millions of pounds of taxpayers' money is being used to bankroll the Adam Smith Institute by this government," John McGhie, campaigns and investigations director at Christian Aid said. McGhie also strongly rebutted DfID's claim, made Monday night, that its support for economic reforms in Andhra Pradesh, including the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, has helped safeguard the livelihoods of "around two million people" in the state. McGhie acknowledged that the Labour government's broad policy thrust was not to support unfettered liberalisation and privatisation, but added that this "180 degree U-turn was very recent - after years of supporting liberalisation." One stark example of how unfettered privatisation went wrong, said McGhie, was the fate of the Andhra Pradesh State Seed Development Corporation (APSSDC), which was allowed to languish to make way for private operators to move in. The result was sub-standard seeds, higher prices, low productivity and farm debts. "I don't know where DfID gets its figures from, but the very fact that the new Andhra government has revived the APSSDC shows that its privatisation was damaging to farmers." Mincing no words, the Christian Aid report draws a strong link between the privatisation of 42 state units in Andhra Pradesh and the farm suicides. "The immediate cause of these deaths is debt. This debt was brought on by a number of factors, all of which, except for the weather, can be ascribed to liberalisation," it says. "These liberalising factors at both national and state level were the results of policies made by India's central government, the Andhra Pradesh government of Chandrababu Naidu, the IMF, the World Bank and DFID. Christian Aid is now campaigning for the British government to bring in legislation to make it illegal for any government to tie development aid to enforced liberalisation and privatisation. McGhie said the DfID's outsourcing arrangement with the Adam Smith Institute too is coming to an end, adding: "It takes a long time to turn around a tanker." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
