NEW DELHI-New Aid Diplomacy

NEW DELHI New Aid Diplomacy B M THE sophistication associated with India's aid diplomacy has begun to wear off. In its place, the bureaucracy, in New Delhi, which is now handling the job, is ready and willing to be unabashed about soliciting aid, to the extent even of making a spectacle of itself and India's abject dependence on aid. The first manifestation of this new style of aid diplomacy became visible at the time of last year's Aid- India consortium meeting when it was publicly proclaimed that the two billion and odd dollars of aid pledged was insufficient, even "paltry" for India's growing aid needs and that New Delhi was greatly disappointed by the aid- givers' performance. But a more stark and striking manifestation of this attitude has been provided in the course of the farewell visit of the outgoing President of the World Bank, Robert McNamara, to New Delhi.