India finally offered Pakistan flood aid on Friday in the form of $5 million of financial assistance, as Pakistan tries to recover from what the UN has called the worst natural disaster it has ever witnessed.
Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna reached out to his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday to offer the donation. Mr Krishna said the offer is a "gesture of solidarity with the people of Pakistan in their hour of need".
However, critics in India complained that the aid came a bit late in the game, including The Times of India:
India's offer of aid has taken its time, and comes after UN secretary general Ban-ki Moon put out a global appeal for over $450 million in flood relief for Pakistan. Considering India is invariably one of the first to rush emergency aid to countries in the neighborhood, its hesitation in announcing relief in this instance was baffling to say the least.
Yet, on the other side of the aisle word has leaked that Pakistan is still “considering” the offer and has not formally accepted the much needed aid. According to Dawn.com a senior Pakistani official said: “We have not rejected the offer outright and a decision would be made soon.”
The delay by India may seem unreasonable and Pakistan's hesitance in accepting the aid might seem even more insane, but there appears to be some history here that shouldn’t be overlooked, also pointed out by The Times of India:
During Pakistan's massive earthquake in October 2005, India sent three consignments of relief material like blankets, medicines etc. For the first time ever, IAF planes landed in Islamabad to deliver relief material. But afterward, officials reported that Pakistani authorities had ripped off ‘made in India' labels from relief material before distributing them, because it was easier to believe that India had not helped out during the earthquake. India had made a cash contribution to Pakistan's relief efforts, but Pakistan never used it, which led to a feeling of rejection in the Indian side.
So far the flood has killed 1,600 people and has negatively affected 14 million. Landmines transported by the floodwaters have thwarted the relief effort in some areas and water-borne diseases such as cholera are another lurking issue that experts say are sure to break out. Because of the lack of sanitation many fear the fatal diarrheal disease will spread rapidly once it emerges.
The Crops Protection Association estimated a total loss so far of approximately $1.8 billion and agriculture officials reported that 17 million acres of farmland were now underwater. Experts believe a combination of the exploding population, extensive deforestation and the building of dams for irrigation and power generation across tributaries of the Indus River over the years has contributed to the deterioration of the natural environment.
The worst news that has come in is that the flooding is not over. The National Disaster Management Authority’s spokesperson, Ahmed Kamal, announced: "There is likely to be further devastation.”
Flood levels might surge even higher along the Indus river with and "major peaks" are expected to hit the Punjab and Sindh provinces next week.
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Comments
This is a good and balanced article and it pretty much answers the question as to why India does not really care to help Pakistan. History has shown repeatedly (as the article points out) that Pakistan does not want Indian help and when India does offer help it’s never appreciated. A nation of over a Billion people and a with a lot of poverty to deal with, I think India is right in not offering any help. The Pakistani’s are so fanatics that they will rather die than get help from India.
Plus being an Islamic nation Pakistan has a lot of rich Arab friends and Yes USA too so it does not really need India’s help.
Instead of wasting money on a nation which might not use the resources supplied, India is better of using that aid to help its poor people.
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