As the world took notice of ISRO's capabilities following the successful touch down of the Chandrayaan-3 landing module on the Moon, a TV broadcater's tweet on the aid UK sends to India has kicked up a debate on X, formerly Twitter.
Sophie Corcoran, a reality TV personality and political broadcaster as per her bio on X, said the UK should not send aid to countries like India that had advanced space programs and can land rockets on the other side of the Moon.
She also said it's time "we get our money back".
"India has become the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the south pole of the moon so why did we send them £33.4 million in foreign aid which is set to rise to £57 million in 2024-25," Corcoran tweeted on Wednesday.
Netizens, mostly from India, were quick to pounce upon the journalist's post and pointed out that Britain should also give back the money looted from India during their rule. Soon, "45 trillion" began trending on X.
"The UK should also be returning $45 TRILLION looted money back to India and stop funding NGOs of India in the name of foreign aid," a user said.
Another also demanded the Kohinoor back. "Just subtract it from the $44 trillion you have looted from India. Give back our Kohinoor also," the Twitter user said.
"It is estimated Britain drained out over $45 trillion (as per today’s value) from India. Britain can keep the $2.3 Billion plus the interest and send the rest back to india," another tweet said.
The $45 trillion number was mentioned in a research by economist Utsa Patnaik, published by Columbia University Press. Patnaik, drawing on nearly two centuries of data on tax and trade, calculated that Britain drained a total of nearly $45 trillion from India during the period 1765 to 1938, a report in Al Jazeera said.
The amount is around 15 times more than the Britain's GDP today.
A review by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact said the UK government spent £2.3 billion on aid to India between 2016 and 2021, a report in The Guardian, published in March 2023, said.