TERRORISM IN INDIA: 2012

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Desi Mossad is getting ready at Bajrang Dal's Ayodhya camp

Old article worth reading...

AYODHYA, JUNE 29: ``I, as a member of Bajrang Dal, swear in the name of Lord Hanuman to always remain prepared to protect my country, religion and culture,'' 150 young men, between 15 and 21 years of age, recite in unison. After practising target shooting with air guns at Karsevakpuram for the past one week, the group is attending the convocation function presided over by the national co-convenor of the Dal, Prakash Sharma. The training camp ended last evening amid loud chants of ``Jai Sriram and Jai Bajrangbali.''

``We are empowering a cadre of Hindus so that no one, not even the Prime Minister, should bow before the Pope to apologise for false attacks on Christians in India,'' Sharma told The Indian Express.

Asked what he did at the camp, an activist whispers, ``I am from the secret service of Bajrang Dal. Israel's Mossad is my inspiration. I can't tell you more.''

Bajrang Dal officials take great pains to explain that their camp was more to impart physical fitness to the cadre than giving them shooting practice. ``We want our workers to be prepared for any eventuality and hence we are training them in target shooting. May be tomorrow one of them wins an Olympic medal for the country,'' says Ramnath Mahendra, central treasurer of the Dal.

Dal leaders in their defence, cite example of Israel where all citizens have to undergo a mandatory training in physical fitness and arms handling. But, isn't Israel's geographical situation peculiar? ``India's even worse. Israel has threat only from outsiders while India faces threat from even those inhabiting it,'' Sharma replies.

Dal leaders claim this is not the first time that they were imparting arms training to their workers. ``We are training them in handling firearms since 1996. Ayodhya is only one of the 25 such camps planned between May 10 (in Karnataka) and July 30 (at Guwahati),'' Sharma says.

Dal office-bearers feel outraged on being asked about reason for training their cadre in handling guns. ``Have you ever you this question to the Scouts or National Cadet Corps officials? If they are preparing young generation for serving the country, so are we,'' Sharma says. ``Arms training, in fact, bolsters their morale and self-esteem.''
Mahendra says charges of attacks on minorities by Dal activists are false. ``No inquiry commission has blamed Dal for attacks on minorities. Truth has already come out about such incidents at Manoharpur, Keonjhar (Orissa), Jhabua (MP), Rewari (Haryana) and Dangs (Gujrat),'' he claims.

Sharma adds: ``As far as our role in Babri Masjid's demolition is concerned, we are proud of that and would again perform a similar role in construction of a grand temple at Ram Janmabhoomi.''

Dal activists were also trained in martial arts like judo, karate and physical exercises at the week-long camp in Ayodhya. They also learned how to climb on rope, walk on rope-bridge and jump through a circle of fire, says Hari Dixit, another office-bearer. They are also given lectures by experts on various socio-political issues.
The trainees stayed in dormitories inside Karsevakpuram and were not allowed to venture outside during the camp. They ate together after reciting a few mantras, washed their utensils and slept on the floor.

Most of them are college students from Kanpur and Lucknow. ``We are all committed Bajrang Dal workers. The training simply hones our knowledge as well as physical fitness,'' says Santosh Singh from Lucknow's Rajajipuram.

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.

Unholy alliance between Hindutva and Zionism

Unless more sane voices prevail, certain faith groups will continue to use religion as a tool of political expediency

Perhaps one of the most troubling legacies of the twentieth century is that of fractious identities. The turbulent socio-political exigencies of a post-colonial world demanded a re-evaluation and often re-configurations of ideas of nationhood. India is still in the process of imagining a unified nation-state in a country with a diverse and layered history. Israel is still trying to develop a coherent idea of what underlies its history and future trajectory as a nation-state.

Both countries face mounting pressure from similar movements, which if left unchecked, can only exacerbate sectarian tensions and prevent any semblance of peace in their respective regions. The argument for re-asserting the rights of a ‘lost civilisation’ is shared both by extreme Zionists as well as advocates of Hindutva. Mark Sofer the Israeli Ambasssador in India, in a recent interview, talked of the ‘awe and admiration in Israel for Indian history, culture and mentality.’ The fact is that there is no one Indian civilisation, culture or mentality. The only people who like to make such claims are those groups that are adamant on propagating their version of a ‘Hindu’ India. Perhaps it is with these groups that some people in Israel have found resonance. The Holy Land is seen by some Zionists as exclusively belonging to the Jews. Similarly the ideological progenitors of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a group that provides ideological direction to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the right-wing Hindu nationalist main opposition party, wrote about Christians and Muslims that “they are born in this land, no doubt. But are they true to its salt?...No.”

Perhaps the most crucial similarity between the two movements is the effort to sacralise the nation-state and therefore give it divine sanction. Proponents of Hindutva conceive of India as Bharat Mata, Mother India and therefore deify the nation. Zionism argues that the Torah demands that it is incumbent upon Jews to create a sovereign commonwealth in which the Halakha, or ‘sacred law’ is implemented. Implicit in this sacralisation of the nation-state is the tendency to conflate political opposition with anti-nationalism and therefore ‘anti-Hinduism’ or ‘anti-Semitism.’

This is well illustrated by two examples. In India, the house of the author Arundhati Roy was attacked by BJP women activists demanding that she be tried for sedition for her statements about Kashmir. Roy had stated at a conference that Kashmiris have the right to decide whether they should be independent. Branding this statement as anti-national, the BJP in effect has also accused her of ‘blasphemy’ for she had questioned the very integrity of Bharat Mata. Interestingly when the chief of the RSS blamed the Indian Constitution as the root-cause of India’s ills, no charges of sedition were leveled against him. The recent controversy over whether citizens should swear allegiance to Israel as a Jewish State is symptomatic of a similar problem wherein, by conflating the identity of the country with being Jewish, any political opposition effectively becomes twisted into a form of religious opposition. Anti-Zionism becomes anti-Semitism. Thus, the burden of upholding secularism does not fall upon religious majorities but is borne by religious minorities, in this instance, the Muslims.

The proponents of these ideologies make for strange bed-fellows. One of the first proponents of Hindutva, Veer Savarkar, wrote that ‘the Jews are a brave and intelligent people… although their State looks like a child before our great state of Bharat we must emulate its example.’ Today, members of the RSS, the current flag-bearers of Hindutva, like ex-Deputy Prime Minister Advani, are openly courted by organisations like the American Jewish Committee. It is ironic that one of the founders of the RSS, Golwalkar, openly supported the abhorrent treatment of Jews by the Nazis in order to create a pure Aryan state. Even the structure of the RSS was modeled on the Italian Fascist Organisation and the founders had a particularly warped admiration for the SS. Despite this, the ties between supporters of Hindutva and radical Zionists are surprisingly close.

In a joint conference hosted by the US Indian Political Action Committee, the American Jewish Committee and The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, Indian and Israeli officials and US politicians discussed the ‘symbiotic’ and ‘unique’ status of Indo-Jewish relations and the similarity of the problems they faced. Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-New York) articulated the fears of the proponents of Hindutva and radical Zionism succinctly. He stated that the real problem was that Israel was “surrounded by 120 million Muslims” while “India has 120 million.” The newfound comfort between the proponents of these divisive ideologies seems to be more to do with politics than religion.

There are major divides within Judaism and within Hinduism. The RSS and BJP are not representative of all the Hindus. Similarly, right-wing Zionists cannot be representative of all the Jews. However, until more sane voices prevail, groups like these will continue to use religion as a tool of political expediency. (varsity.co.uk)

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

SIT says illegal instruction given in private is not an offence

Original Article

Even if Narendra Modi instructed his officials to allow Hindus to vent their anger against Muslims, the instruction would “not constitute an offence” if it was given within the four walls of a room. This is the opinion of the Special Investigation Team that probed Zakia Jafri's complaint against Mr. Modi and 61 others for their alleged involvement in the 2002 anti-Muslim violence.

One of the charges in Ms. Jafri's complaint was that at a late night meeting of top officials held at his residence on February 27, 2008, the Gujarat Chief Minister had said Hindus must be allowed to carry out retaliatory violence against Muslims in the wake of the Godhra carnage. Eight officers attended the meeting. Another officer, Sanjiv Bhatt, who was then with the State Intelligence, said he was present at the meeting, and had heard Mr. Modi give the anti-Muslim instructions.

The SIT dismissed Mr. Bhatt's claim on two main grounds. Mr. Bhatt was a tainted witness who was involved in criminal cases of a serious nature. Secondly, seven out of eight officers present strongly denied that he had attended the meeting. One officer, Swarnakanta Varma, said she was unable to recollect if she had seen him at the meeting. All eight officers also refuted Mr. Bhatt's claim that Mr. Modi had given illegal instructions to them.

The SIT said the Chief Minister had repeatedly announced — in public, at press briefings and on the floor of the legislative assembly — that he would not spare the culprits of Godhra and “the state government has taken this heinous, inhuman and organised violent act very seriously and is committed to give exemplary punishment to the culprits so that such incident never occur anywhere.”

Further, in an appeal on Doordarshan, Mr. Modi said that “the culprits would be awarded such exemplary punishment so that no one would dare to involve himself in such an incident.” The SIT noted that at least on five occasions between February 27, 2002 and February 28, 2002, “the Chief Minister addressed Media, Assembly and General public and everywhere the genesis and intention was one and the same, i.e, to punish the culprits responsible for the Godhra incident in an exemplary manner so that such incidents did not occur ever again.”

The SIT said in the light of these statements, Mr. Bhatt's claim about any illegal instructions would “appear to be without any basis.” Then it concluded: “Further, even if such allegations are believed for the sake of argument, mere statement of alleged words in the four walls of a room does not constitute an offence.”

Modi terrorized minorities to come to power: SP

Original Article

AHMEDABAD: The Samajwadi Party (SP) has promised to play the role of a third force during the Gujarat assembly elections scheduled to be held this year. Leaders of the party said on Thursday that chief minister Narendra Modi had terrorized the minority community members in the state to come to power.

The party, eyeing the minority and migrant voters in the state, held a meeting of the party workers at Town Hall here on Thursday. Talking to reporters, party MP Ramjilal Suman said, "After the 2002 riots, Gujarat was allocated Rs 150 crore for rehabilitation of the victims. But the sum was returned to the Centre stating that the state had already completed the rehabilitation work." Even the Congress had not paid adequate attention to the minority community in the state, he alleged.

Suman said that the SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav will also come to Gujarat for canvassing during the elections. "Currently, there is no plan of coalition with any party, but if the Congress decides to enter into coalition, they would think over it," he added.

Did Narendra Modi govt pay for SIT chief Raghavan's foreign trips?

Original Article

AHMEDABAD: What was the need for amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran to put down these words in his final report before the Supreme Court which became public this week? "The cost for boarding and lodging for both the amicus curiae at BSF mess, Gandhinagar as well as the cost for local transportation by private taxi was arranged by the SIT...the cost of travel from Delhi to Ahmedabad and back (for both the advocates) was borne by the amicus curiae. In all the interactions with the witnesses, my advocate colleague Gaurav Agrawal was present."

For a while, there has been a buzz in legal circles that the SIT chief and former CBI director R K Raghavan, who has given a report which is very favourable for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the Zakia Jafri case, was being pampered by the state government.

While he had a salary of Rs 1.5 lakh and was entitled to executive-class travel by air, there were murmurs about personal trips at Gujarat government expense to London. Besides, Raghavan had no earmarked headquarter so that he could submit all his travel bills across the country even though these visits were not related to the probe.

Attempts to get information on Raghavan's travel bills under Right to Information (RTI) are being stone-walled. At least three persons, including the state Congress president Arjun Modhwadia have repeatedly tried to extract these details but even an appeal to the Chief Information Commisioner (CIC) D Rajagopalan four months back has not helped. A Modi confidant, Rajagopalan retired as chief secretary of Gujarat in 2010 after a six-month extension. Post-retirement, the Modi government then made him chairman of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam and then gave him a three-year term as CIC.

More importantly, there are strong bonds between Rajagopalan and Raghavan as their wives are closely related. Sources said Modi had in fact met Raghavan for the first time at a wedding in the Rajagopalan family while the SIT probe was still on.

Vibrant Gujarat Exposed

After the 2002 riots, Gujarat was allocated Rs 150 crore for rehabilitation of the victims. But the sum was returned to the Centre stating that the state had already completed the rehabilitation work. I suppose that doesn't include around 11000 pregnant ladies in the refugee camps facing extreme difficulties and not mention the families out of work sustained by the daughters forced into prostitution

Around 2 lakh (official figure) people were displaced after 2002, out of these around 21000 are still in 83 different relief colonies all built by ngo's not the state. This is a detailed district wise report.

http://janvikas.in/download/Status_report_IDPs.pdf

Lies, damn lies, and statistics (about Gujarat)

Original Article

Does Gujarat government fudge figures to “prove” its success story? The suspicion is, indeed, not new. I recollect how chief minister Narendra Modi, post-2002 riots, insisted for at least three continuous years that Gujarat’s annual rate of growth was 14.6 per cent. I also believed him (and his aides) till one fine day a senior bureaucrat showed me unofficially – that the high rate was being shown even for the year when it was around six per cent! At a press conference that followed – a rarity nowadays – I asked Modi about his comment on this six per cent. He looked around for a while, and on getting a reply from an aide murmured, “When you are already on a high pedestal, it is difficult to go higher.” One can possibly say, then, he had political reasons for hyping Gujarat’s growth story. He wanted to establish himself, wanted people to forget riots and see how Gujarat had already become No 1 under him.

Things, apparently, have not changed more than half-a-decade later, though he has established himself as Prime Ministerial candidate. Modi today insists, Gujarat’s agriculture has been growing double digit every year. And, this at a time when his officials told Planning Commission on June 1-2 in Delhi that, during the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12), state agriculture grew by just about five per cent per annum. There was a year when agriculture was in the negative – minus 13 per cent, followed by another year when it was “equal to zero”, to quote one official. Figures handed over to the Planning Commission also suggested that in the industrial sector (secondary sector in official jargon), where Gujarat claims to be No 1, the state grew in single digit in 2011-12 – by eight per cent, exactly. All these figures have been kept under the carpet. They are not being officially released. The pretext is, they are being “finalized”.

“Fudging figures” may indeed be a tall order. A few senior experts met in a closed-door seminar in Ahmedabad about a fortnight ahead of the Planning Commission meet. They, too, wanted to “understand” Gujarat’s growth story, whether it could at all be called a model for other states to follow, as Modi would want them to believe. I didn’t attend the seminar, but I managed a note from a source in the Planning Commission on its conclusions. Scanning through it, what struck me most was, several experts seemed to feel that there is something fundamentally wrong with the figures Gujarat government has been officially disseminating. The scholars only fell short of declaring that the figures had been manipulated, though one of them, a demographer, agreed, “Manipulating figures to suit one’s ideology is common.”

Speaking at the seminar, Prof YK Alagh, a well-known economist, wondered why Gujarat was at all claiming a double digit rate of growth in agriculture when, even by global standards, a four plus per cent of growth in the sector was considered very good. The seminar note quotes him as saying, “Though the growth rate was not 10 per cent per year as has been claimed, but a little more that five per cent growth rate also is one of the highest agricultural growth rates achieved anywhere in the world for a decadal period.” Coming from such a veteran expert left no doubt in my mind that growth figures may have been fudged even though there is no reason to do it. One official later told me, “Our data, based on satellite imagery, are different from the agricultural surveys carried out for crop insurance. The discrepancy is wide.”

Others at the seminar suggested how social sector data are being “manipulated”. Prof Leela Visaria, speaking on the status of health of children and women, said that she “relies more on data from large national surveys, as the other data sources such as official administrative data are frequently not reliable”. While she agreed that the infant mortality rate (IMR) has declined from 69 per 1000 live births in early 1990s to 44 in 2010, quoting survey data, she said, “Gujarat ranks poor in the rank in this decline among the major 20 states in India.” In fact, she revealed that “the percentage of married women aged 15-49 suffering form anaemia increased in the state, from 46 in 1992-93 to 56 in 2005-06. This incidence is particularly high among rural, illiterate, ST and poor women. This is a serious matter also because the children of anaemic mothers are highly prone to chronic and acute malnourishment. Clearly, mere distribution of iron and folic acid tablets to pregnant women is not a solution.”

Speaking almost in a similar tone, Prof Sudarshan Iyengar said the official data on retention of children in primary schools need to be checked. “Since the official method of calculating dropout rate is not specified by the Directorate Primary Education, the reliability of these data is questionable. There is no reason to believe in the official data on school retention. The reliability of the data is also challenged by other studies by scholars”, he underscored, adding, “Poor quality of education is a serious problem in Gujarat. Introduction of Gunotsav in 2009 was, in a way, recognition of the fact that quality of education is below the desired level. This annual event, however, cannot substitute regular machinery.”

Scanning through what Prof Iyengar had to say, I instantly remembered of what a senior state official told me about how the political leadership actually likes to show up cent per cent enrolment in schools by hook or by crook. This official, who has now retired, told me how Anandiben Patel, a former education minister who remains ideologically closest to Modi, called for enrolment data from different districts soon after the Kanya Kelavni child enrolment drive. “We collected the data and gave it to the minister. The minister called for a meeting and declared the data were all wrong. She split the meeting angrily. Later, she directly called for more data from districts, which she got. She added these data to the data that we had given. And what she gave us a nearly cent per cent enrolment!”, this official said.

Gujarat: Myth and reality

Original Article

A war of words has erupted between the chief ministers of Bihar and Gujarat. Bihar's chief minister Nitish Kumar has slammed Narendra Modi for taking potshots at the state's slow socio-economic growth. The altercation began with Modi saying that caste politics has ruined states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Hitting back, Nitish has said that Modi should look at the conditions in his own state before criticising others.

For the last several years, Modi has been successful in projecting his "vibrant Gujarat" as a role model of economic growth and himself as ''Vikas Purush". Though one must give due credit to Modi for his effective skills in making projections, one must also critically analyse this "growth story of Gujarat" based on facts and figures. Regretfully, as one examines the facts since Modi came to power in Gujarat in 2001, the story appears to be hollow and, at times, contrary to what is being projected.

First, about the rate of economic growth. During 1995-2000 and 2001-10, Gujarat increased its annual rate of growth from 8.01% to 8.68%. But so is the case with other major states such as Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. In fact, Gujarat was ranked second after Rajasthan (8.34%) in the first period and third after Uttarakhand (11.81%) and Haryana (8.95%) in the second period. What is remarkable, Bihar and Orissa, the two most backward and poverty-stricken states, have also shown growth pick up from 4.70% and 4.42% in the first period to 8.02% and 8.13% in the second period. Even smaller states like Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh have registered growth of 11.01% and 8.96%, respectively.

During 2001-04, the rate of industrial growth for Gujarat was 3.95%, and during 2005-09, it was 12.65%. In isolation, this appears to be a phenomenal jump, but not so when compared to some other states. During these sub-periods, industrial growth for Orissa was 6.4% and 17.53%; for Chhattisgarh 8.10% and 13.3%; and for Uttarakhand 18.84% and 11.63%. Thus, the hitherto industrially backward states have far surpassed Gujarat.

In FDI, too, Gujarat has not been a leading state. During 2006-10, Gujarat signed MoUs worth Rs 5.35 lakh crore with potential of 6.47 lakh jobs. But Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu with Rs 4.20 lakh crore and Rs 1.63 lakh crore worth MoUs, expect about 8.63 lakh and 13.09 lakh jobs. To top it all, Chhattisgarh and Orissa have signed MoUs worth Rs 3.61 lakh crore and Rs 2.99 lakh crore more than Gujarat without much fanfare and Modi's much-hyped industrial summits.

In the area of credit-deposit ratio, Gujarat is far behind other major states. In 2010, Gujarat's share in total deposits of the scheduled commercial banks was 4.70%, as against 5.42%, 6.20%, 6.34% and 26.60% for Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra, respectively. The share of Gujarat in total credit disbursed by these commercial banks was 4.22%; while the same for Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tami Nadu was 29.75%, 6.71% and 9.61% respectively.

The amount of per capita deposit and per capita credit for Gujarat was Rs 37,174 and Rs 24,268; while for Tamil Nadu, it was Rs 42,580 and Rs 47,964; Karnataka Rs 49,598 and Rs 38,154; and Maharashtra Rs 1,10,183 and Rs 89,575. Even Kerala did better than Gujarat with Rs 43,890 and Rs 27,912.

In terms of per capita income (PCI), in 2011, Gujarat ranked sixth among major states with PCI of Rs 63,996, after Haryana (Rs 92,327), Maharashtra, (Rs 83,471), Punjab (Rs 67,473), Tamil Nadu (Rs 72,993) and Uttara-khand (Rs 68,292).

What about inclusive growth in Gujarat? Though Gujarat, with 31.8% people below the poverty line did better than Maharashtra and Karnataka, it still lagged behind Kerala, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, where poverty levels were 19.7%, 20.9%, 22.9% and 24.1%, respectively.

On three important social indicators, viz life expectancy at birth (LEB), mean years of schooling (MYS) and school life expectancy (SLE), Gujarat is far behind some other states. In Gujarat, the LEB during 2002-06 was 64.1 years and it ranked ninth among major Indian states. In the areas of MYS and SLE, during 2004-05, it ranked seventh and ninth, respectively. Kerala ranked first in all three indicators. Even Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka performed much better than Gujarat.

With respect to Human Deve-lopment Index (HDI), Gujarat's story is devastating. The HDI for Gujarat, in 2008, was 0.527 and it ranked 10 {+t} {+h} among major states. Kerala stood first (HDI: 0.790), Himachal Pradesh scored 0.652, Punjab 0.605, Maharashtra 0.572 and Haryana 0.552. With respect to three HDI components — income, health and education — Gujarat does not present a shining story. In this respect, states like Kerala took the lead in every sector, while Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal did better than Gujarat.

It is found that inequality with respect to income, education and health is higher in Gujarat than some of the major states. Shockingly, in terms of hunger — as revealed by the 'State Hunger Index 2008' — Gujarat ranked 13th among 17 big states and worse than Orissa.

In Gujarat, the percentage of women suffering from anaemia has risen from 46.3% in 1999 to 55.5% in 2004, and amongst children from 74.5% to 80.1%. The conditions of dalits and women have deteriorated during the last decade; while those of Muslims and tribals are still worse.

Thus, Gujarat's growth story as claimed by Modi is more a myth than reality. But it is also imperative that other states in the country make concerted efforts to secure higher and also inclusive growth, rather than getting enamoured with the Gujarat growth story. Also, for the people of Gujarat, it's time for introspection and putting right efforts in the direction of making Gujarat a truly "vibrant" state.

The writer is a member of the Rajya Sabha and former member, Planning Commission.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The foreign hand behind Indian Terrorism

Click to Read :

A report details the means adopted by the United States-based India Development and Relief Fund to collect funds from U.S. corporates and channel them to Hindu fundamentalist organisations.

The Foreign Exchange of Hate

Add caption

The Foreign Exchange of Hate

Complete Report here : IDRF and the American Funding of Hindutva

Where do RSS funds come from ?

NEW DELHI: For the last 13 years, the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), a US-based charity has reportedly misused American corporate philanthropy to fund RSS-affiliated organisations here. For instance, the IDRF obtained vast sums from CISCO, a leading technology company in the US with a substantial number of NRIs on its rolls by saying its activities are "secular" since company rules explicitly prohibit donations to organisations of a "religious" nature.

These are some of the findings presented in a 91-page report by The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (TCTSFH), a coalition of professionals, students, workers, artists and intellectuals. In the first phase of its campaign, "Project Saffron Dollar", the TCTSFH plans to write to large American corporates to guard against funding the IDRF, Biju Mathew, a spokesman for the TCTSFH said.

The report, explaining the dynamics of IDRF's corporate funding, says that as professional Indian migration to the US boomed over the last decade, especially in the software sector, Sangh operatives in large hi-tech firms with liberal giving policies worked to put IDRF on the corporations' list of grantees. They then pushed IDRF as the best and only way to provide funding for development and relief work in India, resulting in other unsuspecting employees, as well as the corporation itself to fund the Sangh in India.

RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav, when contacted, said: "There is no specific organisation which collects funds for the RSS. However, certain projects run by RSS-affiliated organisations do get money from NRIs for specific projects such as the Ekal Vidyalaya scheme (one-teacher schools run in tribal areas). This organisation (that you have mentioned) may have given some money, too. I have not heard much about it."

The TCTSFH report says that though the IDRF claims to be a non-sectarian, non-political charity that funds development and relief work in India, the IDRF filed a tax document (at its inception in 1989) with the Internal Revenue Service of the US Federal government, identifying nine organisations as a representative sample of organisations it would support. All nine were Sangh organisations.

The report also says that 82 per cent of IDRF's funds go to Sangh organisations. It documents the fact that 70 per cent of the monies are used for "hinduisation/tribal/education" work, largely with the view to spreading the Hindutva idealogy among tribals. Less than 20 per cent is used in "development and relief" activities, but the report concludes that since there is a sectarian slant to how the relief money is disbursed, these are sectarian funds, too.

Source