The Hindu : Govt. vague on funds sent by U.S.-based charity

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 12, 2002

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Govt. vague on funds sent by U.S.-based charity

By Anjali Mody

NEW DELHI DEC. 11. The controversy over funds sent to Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) in India from the Sangh Parivar-linked U.S.-based charity, the Indian Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), has found the Government obfuscating on the issue. Questions, on the subject from the Rajya Sabha MP, A. Vijaya Raghavan, received answers, from the Minister of State for Home, Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, which appear to be rather economical with the truth.

Mr. Vijaya Raghavan asked the Minister for year-wise details of funds received from the IDRF by NGOs working in India. The Minister said that in 1999-2000 no funds were received, in 2000-2001 Rs. 21.25 lakhs was received by one NGO, which was not named and that the data for 2000-2002 was under compilation.

To a question on year-wise details of "expenditure and funds utilised'' by the NGOs, the Minister's response was: "the foreign contribution mentioned above was reported to "have been utilised for relief/rehabilitation of victims of natural calamities.''

The IDRF, however, claims to have donated more than 100 times the amount named by the Minister to more than 50 India-based NGOs not only in 1999-2000, but in the previous financial year 1998-99 and the subsequent financial year 2000-2001. In fact, in 1999-2000, the year in which, Vidyasagar Rao told Parliament, the funds received were "nil,'' the IDRF states that its `gifts' to NGOs in India amounted to $1,566,000 or Rs. 704 lakhs, assuming that its Rs. 45 to a dollar.

In 2000-20001, he said Rs. 21.21 lakhs was received by one NGO. However, the IDRF's largest recipient for that year, Sewa Bharati, Bhopal, got $105,665 or Rs. 47 lakhs. According to IDRF's annual reports, which are available on the Internet, its `gifts' to Indian NGOs between 1998 and 2001 amount to over $4 million or over Rs. 16 crores.

The Minister told Parliament that the funds were used for relief and rehabilitation. It is a fact that some of the funds in 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 are listed for "relief and rehabilitation'' work following the Orissa cyclone and the Gujarat earthquake. However, even in these cases the largest recipient of these funds are organisations which are part of the Sangh Parivar. Sewa Bharati, for example, is listed as the recipient of $360,000 of the total $510,375 shown as earmarked for post- earthquake work in Gujarat. The IDRF, a tax-empt charity based in the U.S., claims to be a non-sectarian organisation raising funds for `development' and `relief' in India. However, a recent report "Foreign Exchange of Hate'' showed that far from being non-sectarian, the IDRF had been funding RSS-linked groups in India since it was formed in the 1980s. Its primary list of the type of NGOs it funds include the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram — linked with conversion activity and anti-Christian violence in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat — and Sewa Bharati.

The IDRF's annual contribution to Sangh NGOs has grown more than 10 times in nine years, from $118,930 in 1992-93 to $1.2 million in 2000-2001. Its fund raising activities have grown exponentially since the BJP came to power. Between 1992 and 1997 it distributed around $1.4 million to Sangh Parivar NGOs. In the four years since 1998 it has disbursed over $4 million.

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