Indian netizens are lately slamming a GB News presenter, Patrick Christys who asked India to return the £2.3 billion aid that Britain provided to India between 2016 and 2021. Christys tried to slander India’s third lunar mission by saying that any country that can afford to go to the Moon does not need foreign aid.
“I would like to congratulate India for landing on the dark side of the Moon. I would also like to now invite India to return the £2.3 billion of foreign aid money that we sent them between 2016 and 2021. We are also set to give them £57 million pounds next year and I think the British taxpayer should keep hold of that, don’t you? We should not be giving money to countries with a space programme. As a rule, if you can afford to fire a rocket to the dark side of the Moon, you shouldn’t be coming to us with your hand out.” said Patrick Christys
The British anchor then quoted the UN to state that India has the highest number of poor people in the world but it is the 5th largest economy with an annual GDP of around $3.75 trillion. “Why are we paying to help poverty-stricken Indians when their own government won’t bother?“ Patrick asked.
As a result, many Indian users took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to take a jibe at the presenter. One common demand that is visible across netizens on X is the Kohinoor as Indians believe that the 105-karat diamond was stolen by the British in 1849 during their rule in India.
Besides this, many users demanded $45 trillion from the British which is an estimation of what the British looted from India during the colonial era with reference to research carried out by a renowned economist Utsa Patnaik – published by the Columbia University Press.
‘Britain, give us back our $44.997 TRILLION!’
— Shashank Shekhar Jha (@shashank_ssj) August 23, 2023
Hi @PatrickChristys,
Thank you for reminding about the grant. Now ‘as a rule, salute us & return $45 TRILLION you’ve looted from us’
Britain gave, as you say,
£2.3 BILLION i.e. $2.5 BILLION.
Deduct it & return the remaining…
Britain drained out over $45 trillion from India, which to date has hampered the country's ability to come out of poverty.
— Niraj Kumar (@Nirajkumar___) August 23, 2023
Between 1765 and 1938, the drain amounted to 9.2 trillion pounds ($45 trillion).
Indians were never given due credit for their precious resources like…
UK give us back the 45 trillion $ you criminally looted from us over the 200 years of occupation. Also you deserve serious sanctions and punishment for your war crimes.
— Abhinav Khare (@iabhinavKhare) August 23, 2023
Btw UK you as an economic power are over. Done. Finished!
Bollywood actor Ravir Shorey also posted a video from Vice titled ‘How Britain Stole $45 Trillion from India with Trains‘.
— Ranvir Shorey (@RanvirShorey) August 23, 2023
On the other hand, some replies in support of GB News can be witnessed under the same X thread.
We should re-direct foreign aid to more deserved causes rather than giving handouts to India which has landed a rocket on the moon and has 5th best economy in the world while ours is 7th.
— Jo Marney (@Jo_Marney) August 23, 2023
I would happily re-direct some of it to help stop illegal poaching in Africa.
They are the 5th biggest economy in GDP, we are 6th! Why should we give them money?
— Nick Hoare (@UKdemocrat) August 23, 2023
Earlier it was Anand Mahindra who took a jibe over a BBC reporter’s old video that resurfaced on the web as India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission laid its footprint on the Moon – becoming the first country to land on the Moon’s south pole.
The video dates back to 2019 from the time of the Chandrayaan-2 mission and was uploaded by a Twitter account named ‘@MeghUpdates‘ on Wednesday. In the video, a BBC presenter can be seen asking an Indian panelist if “India needed to spend money on a space program when there were 700 million people living in poverty in the country,”
“You know I’m going to have to ask you because some people are thinking about this. India, a country that lacks a lot of infrastructure, a country that has a lot of poverty…I think more than 700 million Indians don’t have access to a toilet. Really, Really, should they really be spending this sort of money on a space programme,” the BBC anchor can be seen asking this to an Indian panelist in the video.
The video went viral and faced a big-time series of wrathful commentary from many Indian users.
At the same time, Indian billionaire businessman and the chairman of Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra also took on to X (formerly Twitter) to take a jibe at the presenter’s statement,
“Really?? The truth is that, in large part, our poverty was a result of decades of colonial rule which systematically plundered the wealth of an entire subcontinent. Yet the most valuable possession we were robbed of was not the Kohinoor Diamond but our pride & belief in our own capabilities. Because the goal of colonisation—its most insidious impact—is to convince its victims of their inferiority. Which is why investing in BOTH toilets AND space exploration is not a contradiction. Sir, what going to the moon does for us is that it helps restore our pride & self-confidence. It creates belief in progress through science. It gives us the aspiration to lift ourselves out of poverty. The greatest poverty is the poverty of aspiration…” said Mahindra
Meanwhile, a hilarious viral video of a Pakistani person is also surfacing the web with full virality in which he is using the Chandrayaan-3 success to sarcastically point out the instability in his own country.
