NGO Funding & Agitation Technology - Part 4 #Political Nexus

There used to be a MacArthur Foundation operation in India but their website now seems to have disappeared. Between 1986 and 2004 this MacArthur is reported to have provided some $28 Mn in funding to various NGOs in India. The head of the Indian chapter was a lady named Poonam Muttreja. Below is the organisation she is currently heading and operating:

On the face of it there is nothing unusual about her or about this PFI. She is the wife of AK Shiva Kumar. Now who is Shiva Kumar? He was a member of Sonia Gandhi’s pet coterie called NAC. Some members of this NAC are connected to a world wide web of NGOs and how they operate is a maze and probably even involves money-laundering in some cases. We have to wonder how the NGOs of some of the NAC members get vast foreign and domestic funds. Obviously, the funds get directed to these NGOs probably because of directions given by political forces. Among the members of NAC were Aruna Roy, Teesta Setalvad, Harsh Mander and others like Shabnam Hashmi were involved in govt projects under the Congress. Not surprisingly, some of these members were anti-Narendra Modi, scavengers of the Gujarat 2002 riots and consistently trashed any progress that Gujarat claimed under Modi. So these tweets by Ram Guha when the IB report came out are on predictable lines:

I believe Ram Guha didn’t get a job at the RajivG Foundation maybe that is why he is against him and a perfect Nehru admirer. But that apart, he seems to think IB is in “sycophantic” praise of the Gujarat Model. This is the problem with “intellectual morons”. They will see one word or phrase and conclude what their imagination desires. Let’s read what the IB actually said:

The report doesn’t praise the Gujarat model but clearly alleges some NGOs are being funded to trash the progress in Gujarat under Modi. And that is hard to believe? We have seen hundreds of people (including Private M Katju) who have operated a factory to trash anything about Gujarat; most of it with fake data. But what about the funding? That makes interesting reading:

Who or what is MARAG? It is operated by one Neeta Pandya, wife of Lalji Desai. Laljibhai joins Congress and is overnight made a general secretary. Congress believes in talent so they promote newcomers quickly. Don’t they? For the benefit of cribbers like Ram Guha, long before IB’s report DeshGujarat had put up a complete report on the anti-Gujarat/anti-Modi NGOs. Here’s an excerpt:

“In year 2009-10 foreign fund of Rs. 16440994.00 was transferred to MARAG from Canada and Italy. Some other fund was transferred through India based foreign agencies. MARAG received Rs 87,47,350 from Italy, Rs 70,68,105 from India branches of foreign organizations and Rs 6,02,100 from Canada. All fund was sourced for the purpose of “rural development”. In year 2010-11 Lalji Desai’s organization MARAG received Rs 1,12,66,365 in same bank account described above. While the sum of Rs 10,99,875 was received from Canada, the rest of the foreign fund of Rs 1,03,47,074 was sourced through Indian branches of foreign organizations such as Child Relief and You, Save the Children and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. We generally believe that Indian branches of ‘Save The Children’ and ‘Child Relief and You’ bring foreign funds to India for the benefits of children, however these organizations transferred funds worth millions to MARAG for the purpose of “rural development” according to official documents. Last year our one reader reported on twitter that he saw an international conference organized by MARAG in Ahmedabad’s five-star hotel Courtyard Marriott. Lalji earned fame after agitation against Maruti Suzuki’s proposed plant in Bechraji near Ahmedabad last year. The state government had to exclude some villages from proposed Special Investigation (Investment) Region(SIR) following that agitation”.

Ask yourself the question: what exactly does CRY or Save the Children have to do with MARAG or agitations? Nothing really! Why do their moneys flow to MARAG? Surely, it’s not love and affection but obviously under the directions of some political bosses. And there’s the usual suspect called OXFAM. That brings us back to the biggest web-operator in the NGO operation business: Harsh Mander. This Mander grandly claimed he resigned from IAS services after the 2002 riots on moral grounds of Muslims being killed. Okay! But he did not resign. He took VRS and ensured he was entitled to all the consequential benefits. But the media made a hero of this crook “resigning on moral grounds” to serve society. I don’t know about society but he did serve himself pretty well. He was among the first to write an article in TOI in March 2002 containing a load of rubbish and a bagful of lies about the riots. Having worked in Chattisgarh and MP in tribal areas Mander was quite familiar with God’s angels called OXFAM, ActionAid and other such “derail India” projects. Naturally, he joined Action Aid after he quit IAS. Mander was also a teacher to Arvind Kejriwal. All a nice family!

Read this article on NGO funding and activities about Mander’s connection to Jihad-sympathisers and that should tell you a lot of about this crook. They call it the Manderweb. The number of NGOs this guy has floated and has been associated with is phenomenal. After Action Aid there is Aman Biradari, there is ANHAD (with chronic liar Shabnam Hashmi), there is CES, there is…….. It’s a long one! In just about 2 years Mander’s crony outfits received 12 crores in funds. The donors’ names are quite sexy: Partnership Foundation, AMPI (Islamic), AMFI (Islamic), Action Aid, Oxfam, IMRC (Islamic), Bodo Huetten Foundation, AID, Danish Church Aid and so on. You think all these foundations have the interest of India at heart? But some of these crooks also peddle funds to the media so they will never report on their crimes. This is why charlatans like Mander, Shabnam, Teesta are all darlings of the media! Not one media house ever reports on their crimes or misdeeds with foreign funds. Suddenly, the media criminals who benefitted from NGOs are waking up to crimes they turned a blind eye to. Here’s the latest from Congress-slave Indian Express:

“only two per cent of the country’s estimated 20 lakh NGOs report their donations from abroad, and that most of the money is used for purposes not specified by the NGOs. NGOs have been under the government scanner following an IB report to the PMO stating that they are “stalling development projects”. The home ministry report, released last December, states, “…It is necessary to note that the NGO sector in India is vulnerable to the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing” …  The home ministry also raises concern that a “large number of registered associations still don’t submit their statutory annual returns mandated by the law”…  In previous years, the highest foreign contribution by any district in 2011-12 was reported by Chennai (Rs 889.99 crore) followed by Mumbai (Rs 825.40 crore) and Bangalore (Rs 812.48 crore). Among NGOs, World Vision of India, Chennai, received the highest that year at Rs 233.38 crore, followed by the Believers Church India, Pathanamthitta, Kerala (Rs 190.05 crore), and Rural Development Trust, Anathapur, in Andhra Pradesh (Rs 144.39 crore)”.

There, all of God’s angels flooded with money. As for Shabnam Hashmi, the pathetic liar, she, along with Mander, as partners in ANHAD (I call it Act Now for Hatred & Disharmony) got 1.65 crores in a short period of time. You think all these lucky breaks are because of little Shabbo or little Mander? There shouldn’t be any doubt all the funds were channelled and laundered probably at the directions of political bosses. Why should some Christian Aid in some corner of the world invest in a Muslim outfit of Shabnam? For both Mander and Shabnam’s extraordinary fund-getting prowess read the full details of moneys received in DeshGujarat articles here and here. And I recommend do go through the articles and the statement of funds thoroughly.

Consequent to quitting IAS joining Action Aid and spawning a whole lot of NGOs, Mander also roamed the country and the world on speaking assignments. He was also grandly paid for teaching at IIM and LBS Institute. If political powers are kind to you then you can go very far. All it takes is “Horse Sense”. I have horse sense too, and so too many other observers, and if we had done what the Manders and Aakar Patels did, we would have been on TV and celebrity panellists. Some of us have a disease called conscience but these crooks are vaccinated from it.

None of these charlatans operate without political and media support. It has rightly been called the “NGO-Politico-Media” complex. As if on cue, there’s an article in Sunday Guardian – “Foreign NGOs used Rahul as protector”, which explores the role of Rahul Gandhi in blessing some of these crooks. Quote: “At least four of the nine foreign nationals active in Greenpeace operations in India, who have been identified by the IB as having been hyperactive in orchestrating protests against major projects in the country, "have close links to those in Rahul Gandhi's inner circle", according to a Congress functionary. The functionary claimed that "at least two of the nine are personally known to Rahul, who met them and others from such outfits when abroad". Those close to Rahul Gandhi deny this, saying that "the Congress vice-president is a patriot who would never do anything to hurt the interests of India".

I have said before and say it again; nothing that the IB report reveals is new or wasn’t already in the public domain. The media and others chose to ignore all of it because of the “friendly” govt they had in Delhi. Intellectual Morons like Ram Guha claiming IB has a new found love for Gujarat Model merely reflects his own culture of ass-licking which has helped him and his career. This is the guy who sees a single signboard and writes a whole schoolboy essay about it without thinking twice. I naturally call this liar an “eminent distortian” with sound reason. It is also laughable; all the self-righteous indignation with which some of these NGOs, Barkhas, Guhas and others have reacted. They even called it suppressing dissent as if they are the guardians of free speech. Some lame ones brought up RSS and claimed RSS is the biggest NGO which also receives foreign funding. File a PIL and have RSS investigated if you want. The NGOs file enough PILs even if one tree is felled, don’t they? It doesn’t occur to these morons that no matter what you want to taint RSS with, you certainly cannot call them “Anti-nationals”.

This post concludes this series on fraudulent, anti-national NGOs. It’s always nice to end on a humorous note. Life goes on! I am always amazed at the self-righteous rage with which members of fraudulent NGOs react. You know, during the AK49 days of agitation if you criticised the moronery of AK, his supporters would also scream “You are corrupt. What are you doing about corruption?” At least many AAP members have smartened up to the tricks of AK & Co. It’s the younger lot recruited by the likes of Greenpeace who in their militant approach lose sense. Many NGO bosses live a 5-star life and enjoy 5-star luxuries, all in the name of saving the poor and saving the earth. All of it with other people’s money! I posted a copy of an article on Twitter on such a luxurious hangout.

The article is from WallStreetJournal and you can see the response which comes from a young Greenpeace warrior (I've erased the ID). The self-righteous reaction makes one wonder how brain-washed they are. Is the choice between ostentatious, 5 star luxury or living in huts in cheap clothes? There seems to be nothing in between. That’s how dumb and militantly stupid the recruits of many NGOs are. Some of these NGOs warrant a special SIT to look into their misdeeds. But one thing is clear; most of them have prospered only due to political nexus and patronage.

Concluded. 

Children As Leverage - Part 2

The fountainhead of corruption is always at the top of heap in the govt. For over 9 years the Congotri of corruption has supported and encouraged many bogus NGOs who ran political campaigns for them. It’s only when some of these NGOs started using their money to protest the UPA’s pet projects that they retaliated. “Govt bans 600 NGOs” says Livemint. The protests against the Kudankulam Nuclear Plant brought about more scrutiny. “Church role in Kudankulam protests merits wider probe” says Firstpost. “Govt bans 72 NGOs from receiving foreign contribution” says Indian Express. An online magazine Uday India files a frightening report about foreign funding of NGOs, especially of the Christian variety, in the context of Kudankulam. Most of these NGOs may or may not be doing some good but their objective is not a secret anymore; it is simply politics, lobbying and religious conversion.

There is something even more alarming. The site VigilOnline talks about a very dangerous trend of connections between NGOs, foreign funding and activists. The book (pic) is said to be published after a great deal of research by Radha Rajan and Krishen Kak. The report at VigilOnline says: “The book is a blistering attack of some of our leading NGOs and activists and documents their treasonous agenda for our country, listing in convincing detail their foreign sponsorships, donors and funds. The foreign focus is on the USA and Muslim and Christian organizations based there, that promote and finance Nehruvian secularism in Hindustan through their Indian stooges, of whom the book identifies Harsh Mander as representative…. This offering of V'mala exposes some more linkages of what in the book is called the Manderweb - with Harsh Mander in the centre of the web… IMC is connected to the jihadi Lashkar-e-Toiba, and the L-e-T is connected to Pakistan's ISI. Now, Refugee Watch, in its same section, goes on to report that "AIM intends to forge links with progressive Indians and has been working on establishing links with Pakistani Americans." Both Harsh Mander and Aruna Roy, as eminent Nehruvian secularists, are certainly "progressive Indians". These are stray excerpts so I recommend that you read the whole article at VigilOnline for proper context and clarity. Most of these NGOs invariably are hearts that bleed for children. And that precisely is our context.

So looks like this guy Harsh Mander is all over the place, isn’t he? And yet he was in the policy drafting body of NAC, he runs multiple NGOs. One of his NGOs was headed by an arrested Maoist terrorist who was released as ransom. One of his NGO outlets has been accused of “Abuse alleged at Children home”. Yet this man roams free with no investigation against him and no scrutiny of any of his NGO “firms”. Oh yeah… he’s a darling of NDTV and CNN-IBN. Why so much latitude? Well, he was one of the pioneers of the anti-Modi campaigns and a Congress helper. Neither NDTV nor CNN-IBN ever questioned him on any of his NGOs’ activities. After all, he’s doing a world of good for children too, isn’t he? Is that all? No! In an extensive investigation DeshGujarat, an online news site, reports Harsh Mander’s NGO businesses received over 12 Crores of donations in two financial years through a maze of organisations. Take a good look at the report. A large chunk of it is for “welfare of children”. Did someone say ‘stylish begging’? Harsh Mander gave up his IAS job for all this. Seems quite a sensible guy!

It’s a fashion for celebrities to somehow associate themselves with some charity for children. Let’s not doubt their motives; they may be well-intentioned and not everyone is looking deep into what every NGO is doing and shouldn’t be expected to. However, I would certainly set a different measure for news media celebs who are in the business of looking deeper into everything. Here’s Rajdeep Sardesai doing an interview with World Vision (WV), a charity he supports. He has very kind words to say and you can watch and listen to the full interaction on Youtube. If Rajdeep is so strongly endorsing World Vision do you expect that he or CNN-IBN ever honestly investigate WV if some issue or report crops up? On the contrary, our channels are more known for covering up misdeeds of the parties and organisations they support. Tehelka reports and stings are ones that our media frequently uses to target a certain politician and a party. But there is a Tehelka guy who seems to have made a report on WV for CNN-IBN which they reportedly never carried.

V.K. Shashikumar’s report can be read here in full. I do not vouch for the introduction part but would Rajdeep read and respond to such reports? I doubt it, because it would destroy his credibility of all the “morals” he claims in the video I mentioned above. The report suggests that WV is not just into children’s welfare but a large-scale religious conversion operation. This is true of many tribal areas where missionaries operate and which has been the cause of constant conflict in such areas. I quote a report of 2002 from this article which mentions an event in Dahod (Gujarat) a few months after the riots:

Take, for instance, World Vision New Zealand’s report (4 September 2002) on the funding of ADP in Dahod, Gujarat. Under the head, “spiritual development” the report states: “Held a vacation Bible school for 150 children from different villages. The children participated in games, Bible quizzes, drama and other activities. Organised a one-day spiritual retreat for 40 young people and a children’s Christmas party. Each of Dahod’s 45 villages chose five needy children to attend the party.” In Dumaria, Banka district, eastern Bihar, “the ADP supports local churches by running leadership-training courses for pastors and church leaders”.

Now, WV advertises all over the net (including on this blog site through Google) on how you can lift a child out of poverty with as low as Rs.800/- What part of lifting a child out of poverty involves religion? What part of formal education of a child involves religion? I have absolutely no problems if WV wants to preach religion. Why should they preach it with your money? Most of their money in India comes from people who contribute for education and a healthy life for children, not for religious preaching or conversion. The answer is simple! Just like Coca-Cola wants to catch them young, conversions too are easy if you catch them young. Will Rajdeep Sardesai look at all the reports on activities of WV and air a report? Oh no… their heart CRIES for children, you see!

CRY is appropriate. Sometimes it goes by ‘Child Relief & You’ and sometimes as “Child Rights & You’. I am not sure which one is in vogue. This organisation started off mostly selling greeting cards to people and corporates to generate funds for their activities. Quite a noble and fair way one would say. Since the Card business invaded India some decades ago all kinds of days became fashionable. Mother’s day, Father’s day, Kissing day, Flowers day, Valentine’s day, Grandpa’s day, Grandma’s day and we always had that Children’s day too. But there is a shocking report on CRY diverting its funds to other causes that hardly have anything to do with children. Once again, DeshGujarat reports some group called MARAG is protesting a Special Investment Region in Gujarat. Of the 1.12 crores received by this group to carry out their agitation it is reported that 1.03 crores came from CRY, another Children’s NGO called ‘Save the Children’ and a Swiss Agency.

That there are foreign forces and corrupt people who are involved in political games in projects in India is definitely a dangerous trend. But if organisations raising money in the name of children are using it for purposes other than those stated in their objectives and made public to donors then it’s a serious crime of using children as leverage. The Chief Information Commissioner has just brought certain political parties under RTI. While it may be challenged in court there is justification for bringing NGOs too under RTI. Many of these NGOs use public money, govt money and some even use hawala money. Many are also ‘benami’ NGOs. While not all NGOs are criminals, a huge number of them are slowly starting to show up being involved in financial crimes and acting with political motives. In this context the ones to be most concerned about is those who use children as leverage. Our media will never report on their deeds, they are part of the crime. 

Children As Leverage - Part 1

Beggars realised long back that sending out children for collection made a lot of sense. The emotions that a begging child can bring out can move even the toughest of souls. The immoral afternoon tabloids and pirated book-sellers also found better use for them to sell their trash. But while the child-beggars exist across the country there are bigger beggars who do the begging in style and live a lavish life. But let’s start with some excerpts from an old article; around 24 years old. Let’s start with our original Jholawalas:

“Jholawalas exist in groups and the look on their face is earnest. A genuine jholawala must have a cause. Silent Valley, Narmada Dam, pavement dwellers—or he can’t exist. As thousands perished during Bhopal’s lethal gas leak, many jholawalas took birth. ‘They are the ones who make a difference,” said one observer. “I take my hat off to them.” Several jholawalas, in fact, first rose during the Naxalite movement in the late ‘60s. They were marked by their passion and violent activism. They got beaten up, left colleges and went underground. When they resurfaced, they could no longer adjust to society. The originals are still floating around and have given rise to hundreds of imitators, nouveau-jholawalas, who are turned on by the romance of it all but are, thankfully, spared the heat and hardship… Generally, jholawalas are big drinkers—rum and water if they’re paying for it, and anything else if someone else is… They have little of western pop: they genuinely believe that Madonna is Christ’s mom… Like other human beings, jholawalas too are vulnerable to love. The lovers probably met at a relief camp during riots or in a protest march led by Swami Agnivesh. Jholawalas in love take long walks among ruins, have a civil wedding (or simply live together) and then go for a honeymoon to more distant ruins like Mandu, near Indore”.

That was from an article in India Today about Jholawalas written in 1989 (Do read the whole article here). The article describes how the Jholawala travelled on cycles or buses and sometimes parked his car and got on to buses when people were watching. All that changed since the economy was opened up in 1991. Our Jholawalas don’t travel on cycles or buses and some of them don’t even drive their own vehicles, they travel in SUVs and Pajeros. Think of many of them: Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, Aruna Roy, Shabnam Hashmi, Teesta Setalvad, Harsh Mandar … Oh the list is too long. What’s common to all these commie jholas? They are all darlings of the media. They all own or are part of wealthy NGOs.

Shekhar Gupta of Indian Express reminds us of a startling fact: “Remember that one of those eight Maoists released in exchange for the abducted Malkangiri collector Vineel Krishna was A. Padma, wife of top Maoist Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramakrishna. And she managed Aman Vedika, an orphanage run by activist and then NAC member Harsh Mander”. So, is it any surprise that some of these naxal sympathisers also concoct legislations for you from the NAC? And what does Harsh Mander do for a living? Oh you guessed it; he works for communal harmony, education of children and poverty alleviation. If only there were more Harsh Manders! Is it also any surprise why the Congress won’t seriously act against Maoists?

How does it start? Well, start off with some protests, scream at prominent spots like Jantar Mantar or Azad Maidan and voila, it turns on the tap of money that then flows like a river. And yes, almost all of them are Maoist and Naxal sympathisers. Some are also sympathisers of anti-nationals, terrorists and separatists. They create subtle terms to fool people like “moderate separatists”. Most of them also get the Magsaysay award.  Take a look at the pic from the India Today article I just quoted:

Ford Foundation? Hmmm! Does that remind you of someone? Ford Foundation now offers more than scholarships. They fund a lot of NGOs and dictate the agenda and the kind of protests they are willing to support. There are many other fund managers and fund-raising brokers too. A majority of these NGOs are scamsters who exist only to make money and act as hawala channels. But the ones most milking humanity and money are the ones who are or claim to be doing work for a better life for children. Take a look at this pic:

This is an image from the Sakya School in Gaya, Bihar run by an NGO called “Sakya Sujata Children’s Welfare Trust”. I am reminded of all the Miss Indias, Miss Worlds and Miss Universes who when asked a question about their dream tell us how they would like to see all children healthy, educated, free of illness blah blah. The NGOs sort of extend those Miss Indias’ dreams by doing the work on the ground. The website of Sakya would give you a great picture of what this little NGO is doing. Let’s read what the owner told someone else (The title of the article itself is shocking “Dummy NGOs exploit charity movement in India”):

Some NGOs in India stand accused of earning a living by pretending to be a charity. A number of schools set up to help the poorest of the poor are allegedly turning out to be fakes.The building and classrooms in a school in Bodh Gaya, eastern India, may look functional, but classes are rarely held here. That is because it exists only to attract foreign tourists to donate money to the school trustees. “If you think we’re running a business here, you’re quite right. This is how I feed myself,” admits Chandan Kumar Verma, a trustee of Sakya Sujata Children Welfare Trust. “By the way, there are other NGOs here who take money and don’t even have any facilities”…  “Sounds like a pity. I’m sure there’s good work being done here, and it’s bad if good work is being ruined because other people start cheating. Then people will be more careful where they give money to, and finally end up being bad for the people,” Thor, a tourist, told RT.

Nice, eh? He’s happy to be running the business and feed himself. The RT article was written in 2011 so maybe things have changed a bit but one doesn’t know. It’s not just small groups or individuals whose heart overflows with love for children. You have mega “sugar” daddies like CocaCola who join up with the ever-loss-making NDTV to promote toilets and stuff in schools. The saints that NDTV and Coke are they then rope in celebrities like Sachin Tendulkar and Aishwarya Rai for the “nautanki” on TV. Seriously, if Coke ever had the good of children at heart they would have shut down their business. Sugared drinks are the most useless pastime for kids. The consumption of these drinks, mostly in heavy doses, lead to obesity and improper food habits. Coke wants to catch them young as they say. Build a few bathrooms, donate a few desks or furniture, plaster your logo all over these and keep your brand in the child’s head from an early age and earn their lifelong loyalty to the product. That’s the general idea.

NDTV which has often held extremely negative programmes against these sugar-drinks (pesticides and all) don’t mind if Coke brings them a few bucks. After all, it’s all for children, no? What should concern everyone is why NDTV and Coke are seeking donations from the public? Coke is a giant MNC and can easily afford to do all this without public money. This is what I have called “stylish begging” in the name of children. From Bollywood to our media to politicians, everyone wants to do something for children – With your money! And there is more to it than just your money as we shall see in the next part.

To be continued...

Also read: “Confederation of Indian Agitators”