Letters: The charity business

This refers to the editorial “Philanthropy-mongering as PR” (March 27) which highlights Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s desire to donate a large part of their wealth to good causes in India. They have also urged India’s rich to pledge part of their wealth for philanthropic purposes.

Gates and Buffett are among the worlds’ richest people and if they want to donate part of their wealth to uplift the poor, they are welcome. But they should do it silently; why are they trying to show that they are the world’s greatest philanthropists? 

Indian philanthropists, on the other hand, do not believe in publicity. For example, Bhama Shah of Udaipur donated all his wealth to Maharana Pratap to save Mewar from foreign invaders.

The Tatas, Birlas, Bajajs etc. have been donating larger parts of their wealth for a long time, even before Gates and Buffett were born.

Gates and Buffett are India’s guests. They will be heard with respect. However, they can serve the cause by asking foreign philanthropists not to sell products manufactured by them by charging profits at 100 per cent rate. Industrialists in India charge minimum profits while selling their product and this is how they serve the poor.

S C Aggarwal, New Delhi

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