Not competing with China in Africa: Ansari

Elaborating on India-Africa relation and comparing it with that between China and Africa,Vice-President Hamid Ansari has said that India is training Africans how to fish,while China is offering them fish.

Elaborating on India-Africa relation and comparing it with that between China and Africa,Vice-President Hamid Ansari has said that India is training Africans how to fish,while China is offering them fish.

Quoting a Chinese proverb,Give a man a fish,you feed him for a day; show him how to catch a fish,you feed him for a lifetime,Ansari told reporters,If a man is hungry and you offer him fish,having eaten it,he again becomes hungry. So our approach in Africa is not offering fish but to teach them how to fish.

Ansari added that Africas new friends like China came into the picture only in the 1970s and 80s. Chinas trade with Africa is almost triple the size of that between Africa and India. According to an estimate,there are around 800 Chinese companies operating in Africa.

However,Ansari said,We do not have any competition with China. We are cooperating with them on some issues at pan African level,on some at regional level and on many issues at national level in Africa. Our approach is different from China. Our reading of African situation is out of our own experience. The situation we faced in 1946-47 is the situation that Africa faces at present. Capacity building and human resource development has been the focus of our relationship with Africa for a long time.

Referring to the good meetings he had with African Union Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini- Zuma and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn,Ansari said that India already has a number of projects in Africa and there is nothing more to add to it but only to implement them.

He mentioned projects like tele-medicine,tele-education and line-of-credits.

MPs: 8216;Chair has no role in ethical issues8217;

Vice-President Hamid Ansari is of the opinion that ethics committees of both the Houses should take a view on the issue of MPs relatives working as their personal assistants,and that ethical issues are to be decided by these committee with the Chair having no role. As many as 146 MPs have employed relatives as their personal assistants. Asked about the issue,Ansari said,Tell me,is there any law against it? On ethical issues,there is an ethics committee in the Rajya Sabha. These issues are decided by that committee.

Though former secretary general of Lok Sabha Subhash Kashyap had told The Indian Express that the issue may be dealt with by presiding officers or ethics committees of both the Houses,Ansari clearly said that the chair has no role in it. According to The Indian Express report,published on May 15,104 MPs of the LS and 42 MPs of the RS have appointed their relatives as PAs to get the allowance of Rs 30,000 per month.