Departing from India's long-held stance of refusing outside aid, the finance minister said Friday the government would consider international assistance for reconstruction of the tsunami-devastated south. Minister P. Chidambaram said the massive scale of the disaster made it necessary for India to consider foreign aid in dealing with long-term rebuilding and rehabilitation. "India has been accused of adopting an isolationist stand and of not accepting foreign aid," he said. "This is not true. When a tragedy like this happens, relief is the first stage and rehabilitation is the second." Chidambaram said India is fully capable of providing short-term emergency aid to its citizens but needs help with the more expensive reconstruction stage. "We believe we are a large enough country to provide relief to our country and we even have provided relief to Sri Lanka and the Maldives," he said. "However, long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction require massive investments." India has recorded nearly 10,000 deaths from the tsunami that pounded shorelines on Dec. 26 in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Pondicherry as well as the outlying Andaman and Nicobar islands. Another 6,000 people are missing and presumed dead, mainly in the island territories.
