Surajit Dasgupta
The correspondent is a journalist who has worked with The Statesman, The Pioneer and Money Life besides freelancing for some other newspapers and magazines. He was a founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party who resigned from the organisation in November 2013, protesting lack of internal democracy, selection of quite a few candidates of dubious credentials, and a populist manifesto that he thought would wreck Delhi's economy.
In our reports, ‘AAP part of international anti-India racket’ part 1 and part 2’, we revealed the Ford Foundation connection of the following Indian NGOs:
• Sampoorn Parivartan (later christened Parivartan) of Arvind Kejriwal and Kabir of both Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia.
• ICSSR of Jawaharlal Nehru University that funded Yogendra Yadav.
• PRADAN of Meera Sanyal.
There are other Leftist noise makers who are beneficiaries of the Ford Foundation:
• Mallika Sarabhai’s NGO Darpana.
• Amartya Sen for his book, The Idea of Justice.
• Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand’s Sabrang Communication.
These names have also been mentioned by R Vaidyanathan of the Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru, in his investigative article ‘Is India safe: What is Ford Foundation?’
While the first four dramatis personae are members as well as election candidates of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the next four are sympathisers of the party. Sarabhai had actually got into the party but was then repelled by the only apparent right winger in the fold, Kumar Vishwas.
Arvind Kejriwal’s Ford Foundation agenda
Activists in Gujarat allege that Sarabhai runs an ‘empire of trusts’ in the State, and whenever activists and reformists demand that the State must switch from income tax gradually to wealth tax, she is among the foremost to oppose the proposal. Ambalal Sarabhai was given licenses by the British Empire to run textile industries. His granddaughter Mallika Sarabhai is a trustee in several trusts that own miles and miles of plots of land across Ahmedabad. Her land holdings are official and known to the Government, but the data are not made public as details of a trust’s wealth are permitted to stay confidential by law. She fears a new Government promising systemic changes may change this law and make her look super rich, rather awkwardly. She runs NGOs that used to supply goods to various Government departments at premium prices. The reason that turned her against Chief Minister Narendra Modi is his policy to have variety in vendors from whom the Government buys goods required by the State, alleged Sarabhai’s former colleagues under the condition of anonymity.
The book, Toward Sustainable Development: Struggling Over India’s Narmada River, edited by William F Fisher, shows special interest of these American outfits in Medha Patkar’s Narmada Bachao Andolan: Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Indo-US Sub-Commission on Education and Culture and the US Department of Education. Patkar is also the AAP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Mumbai northeast.
“If you have so much of evidence, then why don’t you complain to the Government?” my detractors often ask. Complain to which Government, the one that grants Sisodia permission to receive foreign funds in 2005, before his NGO is registered in 2007!
There is another reason to suspect a CIA-Indian National Congress nexus. On December 3, 2013, The Economic Times reported that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had contracted MongoDB — an American open source, cross-platform, document-oriented, database system start-up — in an unspecified database management capacity. MongoDB is partially funded by the not-for-profit venture capital firm of the CIA called In-Q-Tel (IQT). In-Q-Tel works with National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Defence Intelligence Agency and Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, too. Making the deal more suspicious, neither UIDAI nor MongoDB or UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani responded to queries from ET on whether the CIA link was considered before entering into a partnership.
AAP an international conspiracy against India
Out of the declared beneficiaries of the Ford Foundation, one would note that almost all NGOs have some Government, National Advisory Council (NAC) or AAP connection:
To promote ‘transparent, effective and accountable Government’
For research and public policy analysis:
• Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) — $325,000
• Samarthan Centre for Development Support (SCDS) — $150,000
• Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) — $200,000
• Prayas — $350,000
• Centre for Policy Research (CPR) — $200,000
For programmer exploration:
• Praja Foundation
To strengthen ‘human rights worldwide’
For research and public policy analysis:
• SAATH Charitable Trust – $200,000
• Vigyan Foundation – $200,000
• Natural Justice – $250,000
• National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University – $330,000
• Rural Development Institute – $315,000
• Centre for Economic and Social Studies – $200,000
For capacity building and technical assistance:
• IDEAL: Institute for Development Education and Learning: $270,000
• South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR): $200,000
For advocacy, litigation and reform:
• Lawyers Collective: $1240000
‘Expanding livelihood opportunities for poor households’
For programme exploration:
• Centre for Collective Development (CCD): $300,000
• Madhyam Foundation: $250,000
• Neeti Solutions Private Limited: $250,000
• Action for Social Advancement (ASA): $550,000
Programme demonstration and scaling:
• Friends of WWB – India (FWWB): $500,000
• Access Livelihoods Consulting India Pvt Ltd – $190275
• Sarba Shanti Ayog (SSA) – $250000
• Rabobank Foundation – $690000
Advocacy, litigation and reform:
• Trickle Up Program, Inc – $350000
• Professional Assistance for Development Action – $590021
• Xavier Institute of Management – $500000
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – $370000
• Institute for Financial Management and Research – $250000
• The Livelihood School – $350000
Research and public policy analysis:
• Foundation-Administered Project (FAP) – $342000
“Expanding community rights over natural resources” (this agenda figured prominently in the first policy meeting of the AAP held in the house of Shalini Gupta, Prashant Bhushan’s sister, in Noida in between January 11-13, 2013. Yogendra Yadav, Anand Kumar and invitees Prof Arun Kumar and Aseem Shrivastava stressed the need to switch socialism from bureaucratic control to community ownership)
Programme demonstration and scaling:
• Vanangana – $310000
• Arthik Anusandhan Kendra – $176250
• Stichting Hivos – $1400000
• Sahjeevan – $320000
Research and public policy analysis:
• Vikas Sahyog Kendra – $160000
• Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development (SPWD) – $210000
• Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) – $300000
• Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment – $200000
• Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois – $91844
Advocacy, litigation and reform:
• Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) – $140000
• Centre for People’s Forestry (CPF) – $200000
• Vasundhara – $300000
Network building and convening:
• Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS) – $345656
Programme learning:
• Foundation-Administered Project (FAP) – $630000
Communications and public education:
• Sahjeevan – $80000
“Advancing media rights and access”
Research and public policy analysis:
• LIRNEasia – $300000
• Vikas Samvad Samiti – $200000
• Jamia Millia Islamia – $200000
• Centre for Communication and Development Studies – $250000
Evaluation and assessment:
• Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad: $150,000
Capacity building and technical assistance:
• Rural Broadband Pvt Ltd: $350,000
• Indian Institute of Technology Bombay: $530,000
• Society for Development Alternatives: $250,000
• Urban Design Research Institute: $200,000
Stakeholder development and collaboration:
• One World International Foundation: $257,450
“Youth sexuality, reproductive health and rights”
Capacity building and technical assistance:
• Institute of Social Studies Trust: $200,000
• Nirantar: $250,000
• SAMA – Resource Group for Women and Health: $240,000
• Health Institute for Mother and Child – MAMTA: $280,000
• CREA: $440,000
• Sahaj: $200,000
Programme demonstration and scaling:
• Women Power Connect: $250,000
• Asmita Resource Center for Women: $275,000
• HAQ: Centre for Child Rights: $235,000
• Sakhi: $200,000
• Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA): $477,500
• Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action: $190,000
• Sahayog Society for Participatory Rural Development (SSPRD): $340,000
• Anusandhan Trust: $300,000
• Health Institute for Mother and Child – MAMTA: $335,000
Advocacy, litigation and reform:
• National Foundation for India: $690,000
• Center for Reproductive Rights: $300,000
• South Asia Women’s Fund: $175,000
Communications and public education:
• Centre for Media and Alternative Communication: $200,000
In a report, ‘Can AAP fill political vacuum?’, the reporter quotes the CBGA’s Manzoor Ali who approves of the AAP but urges it to retain only its Leftist leadership while weeding out its right-wing supporters. The CBGA’s treasurer Anil K Singh is also the secretary general of South Asian Network for Social and Agricultural Development (SANSAD) whose links with the international anti-India racket has been talked about in my previous article.
Bhopal-based Yogesh Kumar of the SCDS is also a part of the CBGA.
The ADR finds only 14 per cent of the AAP candidates (up to the seventh phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2014) with criminal charges while full-time activists of the party allege they number in hundreds. Of course, the ADR does not count in its total AAP candidates perceived as anti-nationals by the party workers. More about the ADR finds mention later in this exposition.
AAP part of international anti-India racket: Part 1
Rajmohan Gandhi, whose links with Ghulam Nabi Fai has been disclosed in my previous article, has worked for the CPR. And going against the advice of all administrative experts and economists who rubbished the AAP Government’s free water programme, the CPR vehemently supported it through its policy document, “In defence of free water — beyond the Delhi experiment,” calling it “momentous”, going to the extent of equating Delhi with South Africa. Those who have keenly followed the election speeches of Kejriwal throughout 2013 know that he kept saying, “If water can be distributed free in South Africa, it can be in Delhi as well.” Now you know who gave him the idea. Gandhi has also worked with the University of Illinois, whose board of trustees is another Ford Foundation beneficiary.
Never mind the fact that the South African model is not Government-intensive. It comes with management contract to private operators and is equipped with pre-paid meters. It also stresses on universal access to basic sanitation. And the Central Government’s intervention was phased out following the second white paper released in 2002 on the issue.
Praja’s managing trustee Nitai Mehta says, “(The) AAP has brought good governance to the fore and shown that politicians cannot take the common man lightly,” in an interview to The Times of India. To the same newspaper in another interview, Mehta promotes the AAP’s Mumbai northeast candidate Medha Patkar, “She will make a huge dent in (the NCP’s Sanjay Dina) Patil’s vote bank in the slum areas, where she has championed the cause of the poor.”
The SAHR’s Kamla Bhasin wrote about the AAP in Hindustan Times on January 12: “I am happy that the party did well at the hustings.” However, she was displeased with Kejriwal’s phraseology. She nit-picked thus: “… every sentence he uttered was in the masculine gender.”
John Dayal is a member of this NGO. I have mentioned where he fits into the international anti-India racket in my previous article.
Lawyers Collective’s Indira Jaising, also an additional solicitor general, famously preached something and practiced quite the opposite. In the book, Cause Lawyering: Political Commitments and Professional Responsibilities, edited by Austin Sarat William Nelson, she is quoted as saying, “The main reason why we don’t believe in accepting foreign funding is because we think that groups that do that often end up developing a vested interest in being professionals rather than servicing the community, and they get very alienated from the community for whom they work.” Outlook reported in its September 19, 2011 issue that she had received $1240000 from the Ford Foundation.
AAP part of international anti-India racket: Part 2
Hivos is a recipient of the Ford Foundation’s generous grants. Stichting Hivos, the Netherlands, is also a donor who maintains a full-fledged country office in India, receiving $1.2 million. Hivos happens to be one of the co-financing agencies to the Government of the Netherlands, whose embassy funds Kejriwal and Sisodia’s Kabir.
Hivos co-funds one of the NGOs in our list above — the CCD. It also supports, financially, one of the two Ford Foundation-funded NGOs of IIM Bangalore’s Dean Trilochan Shastri, who also runs ADR. He has also been conferred Breton Woods Committee membership, thanks to the Ford Foundation’s lobbying.
AAP’s Yogendra Yadav has been associated not only with the ICSSR but also with CSDS –both recipients of the Ford Foundation’s grants. Yadav was once a political adviser to Rahul Gandhi too.
SPS’s co-founder Mihir Shah is an NAC member. The ASA, an NGO based at Bhopal, is headed by Ashis Mondal, another NAC member.
The SSPRD is supported by the AID, which we reported to have raised funds for both the IAC and AAP in our previous article, a part of the anti-Indian leftist racket with international reach.
The acronym for Professional Assistance for Development Action is not PADA but PRADAN. That is the AAP’s Mumbai South candidate Meera Sanyal’s NGO working with the Maoists.
Deep Joshi, who conceived the idea of setting up PRADAN, is an NAC member.
Viren Lobo, executive director of the SPWD, is a big-time proponent of the AAP’s free water scheme. His Citizens’ Solidarity — Forum for Water and Sanitation (CS-FWS) passed a resolution last month seeking continuation of the fallen AAP Government’s water agenda.
What CIA seeks to achieve through Ford Foundation
Some of these NGOs also have Government connections. Every office bearer of the FES, for example, is or has been a Government servant: Amrita Patel, Samar Singh, Nitin Desai, AN Yellappa Reddy, Deepak Tikku, Mahendra Vyas, Sudarshan Iyengar and Usha Thorat. Their curricula vitae contain mention of so many Government posts they held that it would make a separate article. Readers may refer to the FES board of Governors enlisted in its website.
Same is the story of the CPF. Its managing trustee Urmila Pingle was a member of the National Tiger Conservation Authority. Kameswara Rao, a trustee, has held positions in Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Andhra Pradesh State Pollution Control Board.
Not featuring in the list above is the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). Its CEO Ela R Bhatt was honored by the Ford Foundation on May 4, 2011. The NAC’s Mirai Chatterjee comes from the SEWA. She joined the NGO in 1984 and succeeded Bhatt as its general secretary.
Is such overwhelming presence of the Government, NAC and AAP functionaries among the beneficiaries of the Ford Foundation a mere coincidence?
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