Re: [HumJanenge] Put NGOs under RTI scalpel , Sandhya Jain

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--- On Sun, 28/10/12, Sarbajit Roy <sroy.mb@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Sarbajit Roy <sroy.mb@gmail.com>
> Subject: [HumJanenge] Put NGOs under RTI scalpel , Sandhya Jain
> To: "humjanenge" <humjanenge@googlegroups.com>
> Date: Sunday, 28 October, 2012, 10:49 AM
> "The Government should immediately
> bring all activists under the RTI
> scalpel; this will literally scalp them."
>
> originally posted at http://dailypioneer.com   .. Aug 8,
> 2006
>
> Put NGOs under RTI scalpel
>
> Sandhya Jain
>
> The $50,000 Magsaysay Award was recently conferred upon
> Arvind
> Kejriwal, a former Indian Revenue Service officer
> campaigning for the
> Right to Information (RTI). Though several Indians have
> received this
> prize from Philippines, not many citizens are aware that
> this is
> actually an American award for Asians. Set up by the
> Rockefeller
> Brothers Foundation, most of the purse comes from the Ford
> Foundation.
>
> The citation does not say when Mr Kejriwal resigned from
> service, but
> mentions his association with Parivartan, an entity
> campaigning for
> RTI. Mr Kejriwal was in service when he was with Parivartan,
> which is
> not a registered NGO (a Society, Trust, or S.25 Company).
> Under income
> tax, it is an Association of Persons (AoP), a coming
> together of
> persons with a profit-motive so that members can share its
> income,
> unlike in a registered society. The Parivartan website
> conceals its
> AoP, barring one Manish Sisodia (part-time volunteer,
> founder-member
> and treasurer), and terms of association, yet demands a
> level of
> transparency from governmental agencies that is not in vogue
> anywhere
> in the world.
>
> In a timely study on some of India's most exalted
> conscience-keepers,
> Radha Rajan and Krishen Kak argue for public scrutiny of
> those who
> hold society or government to ransom, usually at the behest
> of foreign
> sponsors (NGOs, Activists & Foreign Funds. Anti-Nation
> Industry, Vigil
> Public Opinion Forum, 2006). Kak's meticulous research shows
> that in
> FY 2002-03, Parivartan showed receipts for Rs 2,02,489 (Rs
> 2,01,889
> are donations); the total expenditure is Rs 1,88,164, of
> which
> salaries take Rs 1,14,000. The only 'programme cost' is Rs
> 35,945 on a
> 'jan sunwai' public hearing), and the rest is standard
> administrative
> expense.
>
> However, Parivartan claims its annual fixed costs are
> approximately Rs
> six lakh, and programme costs are "partly funded through
> collections
> from the community itself including poor people and the
> shortfall is
> made good by raising funds from outside". Its website does
> not say if
> these funds are included in the receipts statement and if
> receipts are
> issued for small sums given by poor people. Yet it wants to
> make the
> Government of India accountable to itself on behalf of the
> "people of
> India".
>
> Radha Rajan argues that many high-profile NGOs serve
> America's vision
> of a post-Cold-War world order. Hence they advocate
> 'communal harmony'
> in India even as jihad batters the Hindu community, and
> promote
> 'peace' with Pakistan despite its formidable terrorist
> infrastructure.
> They are essentially political activists using social
> activism as a
> mask for their crusade against an independent nationalist
> India. Thus
> they are invariably anti-Government of India,
> anti-military,
> anti-police, anti-nuclear, and, of course, anti-Hindu.
>
> America uses the Magsaysay and other awards to legitimise
> its
> loyalists. Indian Magsaysay awardees include Mahasweta Devi
> (1997),
> Aruna Roy and Martin Macwan (2000), Sandeep Pandey (2002),
> Nirmala
> Deshpande and Admiral Ramdas (2005). Then, Praful Bidwai and
> Achin
> Vanaik received the Sean Macbride Peace Prize (2000) and
> Arundhati Roy
> the Sydney Peace Prize (2004). In neighbouring Nepal,
> journalist
> Bharat Koirala got the Magsaysay in 2002 for unleashing the
> anti-Hindu
> process there. Today, a Christian Prachanda has taken over
> the country
> by terrorising the effete political parties and the king is
> a virtual
> prisoner.
>
> Krishen Kak's expose of Harsh Mander (Scoring Against
> Paganism:
> Untangling the Manderweb) is a warning to the Government
> about the
> monetary subversion of serving officers by foreign regimes.
> In March
> 2002, Mander, an IAS officer, became an international
> celebrity when
> he attacked the communal violence in Gujarat (after 58
> Hindus were
> burnt alive at Godhra) in an article in a leading newspaper.
> Feted in
> the West, he claimed he had resigned from the IAS on moral
> grounds.
>
> This was a deliberate falsehood, says Kak, as Mander was
> serving the
> politico-communal agenda of ActionAid, his British employer.
> Mander
> had managed a profitable deputation to ActionAid, getting
> part payment
> in pound sterling in return for scuttling a government
> enquiry into
> its communal agenda in India.
>
> Managing to ward off moves to end his deputation, Mander
> took
> voluntary retirement only on completing pensionable service.
> He sought
> retirement benefits to the tune of upto a million rupees;
> the
> Government stipulated that he cease working for ActionAid;
> he refused
> and continued demanding retirement benefits. When Kak
> publicly
> challenged the lie that he had resigned on moral grounds,
> Mander
> quickly modified his rhetoric.
>
> ActionAid's communal agenda may well be the inspiration for
> the UPA's
> Sachar Committee, and shows how foreign agendas are wormed
> into the
> topmost echelons of power. It recently initiated a study to
> sensitise
> the public and civil society activists about "the dismal
> economic,
> educational and social conditions of the Muslim masses". Of
> course,
> ActionAid conducted no similar study about Hindu survivors
> in Pakistan
> and Bangladesh.
>
> ActionAid used Mander to connect over 300 voluntary
> agencies. Its
> patronage extended to Aruna Roy of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti
> Sangathan
> (MKSS) and National Campaign of People's Right to
> Information (NCPRI).
> The MKSS takes foreign institutional support in kind to
> evade
> reporting its funds under FCRA. The MKSS-approved Lok
> Shikshan
> Sansthan states that FCRA money can be sent to its
> founder-NGO Prayas
> or to the Roy-connected SWRC Tilonia "and it would be
> transferred to
> our organisation's account." Very interesting!
>
> Kak's research has uncovered an hitherto unknown entity
> patronised by
> Mander-ActionAid. This is the "unstructured organisation",
> which
> solicits public money but does not say if it is registered
> and how it
> banks the money. Shabnam Hashmi's ANHAD (with Mander, KN
> Panikkar and
> Shubha Mudgal) is one such body. So is the Aman Ekta Manch,
> Aman
> Samudaya, Aman Jathas, Aman Pathiks. Mander's Aashray
> Adhikar Abhiyan,
> funded by ActionAid, does not reveal the names of the core
> team of
> eleven professionals, or its accounts.
>
> The disturbing aspect of these unregistered unstructured
> organisations
> is their complete lack of accountability or legal scrutiny
> regarding
> foreign donations. Ex-IAS officers and ex-judges often
> provide
> respectability and protection to such dubious bodies in
> return for
> post-retirement sinecures. It is a vicious and dangerous
> circle.
>
> Russia learnt the hard way that unmonitored West-funded NGOs
> triggered
> the spate of revolutions in the former Soviet Republics and
> out them
> under the scanner. The majesty of the Indian state cannot
> be
> subordinated to hupny-tupny rabble-rousers funded by the
> West. The
> Government should immediately bring all activists under the
> RTI
> scalpel; this will literally scalp them.
>