People's Democracy

Is It Just An AIDS Bazaar in India?…

The Real American Interests In AIDS Scare

S K Pande

ARE the CIA, some NGOs in India, and various US Foundations’ working in tandem with some key officials in the union health ministry to bring profits to MNC pharmaceutical companies under the garb of an 'AIDS package' to India and an AIDS vaccine? Have AIDS figures in circulation been cooked up to cater to the AIDS 'industry'? And who cooked these figures?. Is Bill Gates visit to India designed to ward off stiff competition to Microsoft and to also sell his AIDS package?

These questions arise in the wake of disturbing reports that the US intelligence agency, CIA is creating an AIDS scare here by claiming India would have 25 million HIV positive cases by 2010. The CIA came out with a report which talks of India presently having 5-8 million AIDS patients as compared to the National AIDS Control Organisation’s figure of 3.86 million. The report goes as far as terming this scenario as a future security threat to the United States. Bill Gates has reportedly funded this controversial report and also made huge investments in companies involved in AIDS drug research.

Voices are being raised in India and there is a history to it. In fact, an organisation JACK India (Joint Action Council Kannur India) has also accused the CIA of furthering the business interests of Bill Gates’, who is visiting India tomorrow, and his company Microsoft.

‘JACK India’ convenor Purushottam Mulloli has written to US President George Bush demanding that the CIA either reveal evidence in support of its exaggerated report or withdraw it, as it has far reaching implications.

“Mr Gates interest in HIV/AIDS projects in India is not meant for charity, as it appears to be on the surface with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributing funds to fight the AIDS, but is to protect his billions of dollars of his investments in pharma companies which were interested in conducting field trials in India,” Mulloli told media persons. As was announced, a vaccine would soon be on trial and generally common people are early targets though this time there is a search for celebrities too.

Union health minister Shatrughan Sinha, after constant prodding from pressmen, has now said that he does not agree with the CIA report, and even the National Intelligence Council of United States has also clearly stated the CIA estimates appear to be ‘highly exaggerated’ and not based on surveillance data collected inside India.

JACK India charges that the CIA’s direct and unwarranted involvement in Indian public health issues amounted to direct intervention in its domestic affairs and a challenge to its sovereignty. It questioned the basis on which the CIA said that 310,000 people had died in India due to AIDS in 1999 alone.

The Indian Parliament talked of a mere 114 AIDS related deaths in 1999. The Gates Foundation, which had awarded Family Health International a $6.5 million three year grant for multinational clinical trial to evaluate an anti-retro viral treatment as a novel approach to HIV prevention, would focus on sexually active adults in resource poor countries with high HIV prevalence, he pointed out.

“In other words, inflated HIV figures now provide a license for HIV negative sexually young people to be subject to HIV drug trials in countries like India,” he observed.

The country, in particular, its scientists and many genuine NGOs working in the field surely have a right to know the actual basis for the figures specially when such figures are at variance with official data. The government should make all AIDS projects public before India becomes an AIDS bazaar The authenticity of figures or otherwise clearly motivated to justify various international collaborations and direct involvement of foreign agencies in domestic issues which may not be in national interest.

It is clear this report, which states that India would have the highest number of HIV positive people by 2025,  is meant to create an AIDS scare in the country, affecting critical policy decisions, public expenditure, drug procurement and distribution policies, investments on drug research and human trials.

It is often said that intelligence agencies have  a variety of agendas, some visible and others invisible. The truth often comes out when it is too late. The current visit of Bill Gates could be just a beginning just as the country gets set to try an AIDS vaccine. Historically one has seen the controversy with Norplant in the area of family planning alone. One has also seen third world countries being used for drug dumping too. Is it not high time that NACO, the national AIDS body, comes out with all its findings. And, the full AIDS vaccine story too must be made public. Surely one need not depend on the National Intelligence Council of the United States.

 Postscript 

For those not knowing it the National Intelligence Council of the USA is believed to have masterminded the report “The Next Wave of HIV/AIDS”. As per it countries set for future doom are India, China, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Russia. Interestingly the report was prepared under the auspices of David F Gordon, formerly national intelligence officer for economic and global issues. Interestingly too, speaking of the AIDS scenario has been the US ambassador in India, Blackwill who is also known to be a fine-tuned intelligence person. The National Intelligence Council (NIC) manages the US Intelligence Community’s estimative process, incorporating the best available expertise inside and outside the government. It reports to the Director of Central Intelligence Agency in his capacity as head of the US Intelligence Community and speaks authoritatively on substantive issues for the community as a whole.