Earlier this week, India announced that the French built Rafale had beat out the runner-up Typhoon in a $10 billion fighter aircraft contract. The Typhoon, built by the Cassidian unit of EADS would have sustained thousands of jobs in Germany and the United Kingdom. Instead the work and jobs will go to Dassault Aviation, Safran/Snecma and others located outside UK/Germany.
In a shallow complaint, British Conservative Member of Parliament, David Davis is quoted as exhorting British Prime Minister Cameron to “to pull his full weight to get India to change its mind” pointing out that “we give aid to India many times more than what France gives.”
Davis is sometimes touted as a possible future Prime Minister and should know better than to make such absurd statements. First of all, a UK company BAE won an earlier order to deliver 66 Hawk Trainer aircraft to India, valued at 700 million pounds. Second, since India became Independent in 1947, it has bought much British hardware. Third, a billion dollars of aid does not “buy” you ten billion dollars of sales. In fact most people would find such an equation repugnant. Fourth, if Davis checked his own BBC, he would find that India is among the largest inbound investors into the United Kingdom, including such icons as Land Rover, Jaguar and the former British Steel. And finally, some of the richest Brits are actually hard-working people of Indian origin, such as Laxmi Mittal, Swaraj Paul, and Anil Aggarwal.
What this means
I am an Anglophile and I love English culture, literature and all the good things things the British gave to India, most of all the English language. But MPs like Davis seem to pander to short term political needs and harm the greater interests of alignment between the British and Indian cultures and economies.
Davis’s outburst will probably soon be forgotten by all, and that would be for the best.
