Tiff between ministry of finance (MoF) and ministry of external affairs (MEA) hitting India's credibility.
A tiff between South Block, the seat of the ministry of external affairs (MEA) and North Block that houses the ministry of finance (MoF), is hitting India's credibility abroad, undermining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's robust diplomatic efforts to rub shoulders with the world's superpowers.
Despite expansion of engagements abroad, the budgetary allocations of MEA are contracting, with the ministry of finance disregarding pleas from external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj as well as from foreign secretary S Jaishankar.
A 31-member parliamentary panel, headed by Thiruvanthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor that scrutinised grants of the MEA for 2016-17 found that several commitments made by the Prime Minister during tours abroad were not factored in the allocations, thus affecting country's prestige at international fora. Against the requirement of Rs 22,967.01 crore, just Rs 14,662.66 crore has been set aside for the ministry for 2016-17, even Rs 303 crore less from what was granted during 2015-16. Last year, when the ministry had asked for Rs 8,203 crore to implement development projects committed abroad in the supplementary demands, the ministry of finance, provided just Rs 10 crore that too for organising a conference on promotion of Hindi language at Bhopal, disdaining other commitments.
Similarly, against the requirement of Rs 290.18 crore for the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, which now stands merged with the MEA, less than half -- Rs 81.44 crore -- have been provided. While foreign secretary Jaishankar said the issue of additional requirement of funds will be taken up again with the MoF, he admitted that while allocating funds, the inflationary trend and the devaluation of Indian rupee against dollar are taken into account. "The committee is concerned to note that with such a mismatch in projections and allocations, the Ministry of External Affairs has been put in a situation wherein during the current year it will have to manage India's expanding international engagement and the welfare for the diaspora with limited resources. The objectives of India's foreign policy are definitely going to be compromised," said the panel, which amongst its members included Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, his cousin and BJP leader Varun Gandhi, DMK MP Kanimozhi, Karan Singh, former diplomat Pavan K Varma, Supriya Sule and others.
Amazingly, the overall cut in the budget allocations has not affected "entertainment charges", which has seen an increase of 13.4% over previous year. The ministry has attributed this to increase in the visits of dignitaries, which involves costs of extending hospitality, chartering aircraft and maintenance of Hyderabad House. Also the ministry has found that for various small missions, the government was incurring significant establishment costs, instead of rationalising them. The panel believed that in case of small countries a cluster of missions under one roof with local employees could be a workable solution.
Among the neighboring countries, commitments of aid and loan in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and Afghanistan have taken a heavy hit. The grant for Sri Lakha has been halved from Rs 500 crore to Rs 230 crore, for Bangladesh from Rs 213 crore it is not Rs 150 crore, Maldives the against the commitment of Rs. 213 crore, the allocation is Rs 40 crore and for Afghanistan, where India has soft strategic presence being hailed by world community, the commitment has decreased from Rs 628.94 crore to Rs 520 crore. Overall aid and loans to countries has seen reduction by Rs 536.67 crore. In case of Bangladesh, there has been no movement on small development projects as announced by the PM due to non-agreement over implementation modalities between Indian mission in Dhaka and counterpart agencies in Bangladesh. It is also noted that there is slow progress in implementation of projects and commitments made under India-Africa Forum Summits. Expressing serious concern at the government's approach of slashing funds, the Committee has said it has the potential of jeopardising bilateral partnership as well as tarnishing India's international image.
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