(EDITORIAL) One swallow does not a summer make and the release from service of the Under-Secretary in the Industries and Civil Supplies Department to contest a seat in Parliament is no indication that the Government of India are reversing their policy of importing experts from Britain on every possible occasion or pretext. In India the imported expert has become a Jack-of-all-trades and is shunted from one department to another without any official qualms about his fitness for the post. Unlike retired officials from India who hibernate in Britain and occasionally pose on public platforms or in letters to the press as experts on India, the plague of experts whom the Government of India continue to welcome have not even the advantage of a cursory knowledge of local conditions…

It is all very well to argue that India has not the necessary technical personnel for industrialisation and that experts from abroad are inevitable, but where is the guarantee that their affiliations with British industry would not determine their service to India? Between experts who stick to their profession and so-called experts who are not unwilling to essay any and every well-paid administrative job, Indian interests are being ignored by the Government of India…

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2020