Expressing "profound dismay" at the steep cuts proposed in the Bush Administration's 2008 budget for assistance programmes to India, senior US lawmakers have said the process might "inadvertently jeopardise" key facets of Indo-US relationship.
In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezze Rice, lawmakers, who are members of the Congressional Caucus on India, including Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Tom Lantos expressed "profound dismay at the steep and unwarranted budget cuts" proposed in the administration's Fiscal Year 2008 budget for US foreign assistance programmes to India.
"35 per cent reduction requested in the budget would effectively zero out highly successful USAID programmes in clean energy development, water and sanitation, women's rights, and basic education," in the process "sending the wrong signal at the wrong time to our Indian counterparts and inadvertently jeopardising key elements of our increasingly multifaceted partnership with India," he said.
In the fiscal 2007, India received $131 million in assistance, but the latest budget request provides only $81million.
"Despite a decade of strong economic growth and a burgeoning middle class, India remains home to nearly a third of the world's poorest people. Authoritative studies by the World Bank reveal that in India today, 350 million people live on less than $1 a day, more than 60 per cent of households are without electricity, about 20 per cent without a safe and clean water source, and over 70 per cent without adequate sanitation," Lantos said in a statement.
"The proposed Fiscal Year 2008 foreign assistance budget disregards the critical priorities of our Indian partners, ironically casting doubt on the administration's commitment to the goal of transformational diplomacy at the very time when sweeping progress is within our grasp," he said.
The letter to Rice was spearheaded by Lantos, Congressman Gary Ackerman and Congressman Jim McDermott and signed by members of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans.
"We can all see a day when India will no longer need assistance from us to address unmet needs, but that day is not yet here," Ackerman, the chairman of the sub-committee on the Middle East and South Asia, said.
"The administration's proposed cuts in aid to India undermine important progress made in public health and are short-sighted, to say the least," McDermott said.
"India is a strong and important US ally and our commitment to India must be about more than just lip service," McDermott added.
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