THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COMPANY THAT ANNA HAZARE KEEPS
http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1721
The company that Hazare keeps
Krishen Kak
10 Apr 2011
Recently, the front pages of the Indian news media have been saturated
with Anna Hazare’s “fast-unto-death” against corruption in the Indian
polity. Hazare is described as a Gandhian – the politics and morality
of the Gandhian fast is another story; this one is about the company
this Gandhian keeps.
“India Against Corruption” (IAC) is Anna Hazare’s address for his
letter dt. 6/4/11 to the Prime Minister, and is therefore presumably
the prime mover of this fast-unto-death. IAC describes itself as “an
expression of collective anger of people of India against corruption”.
Those who started it include, besides Hazare himself, spiritual
leaders Swami Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravishankar, religious leader
Archbishop Vincent Concessao, a politician in the guise of a religious
leader Swami Agnivesh, and three notables usually described as civil
society activists: Kiran Bedi, Mallika Sarabhai, Arvind Kejriwal. In
addition, “notable participants” include another now-notorious civil
society activist, Medha Patkar.
Agnivesh has his own websites, his own political party, and is a
“self-titled Arya Samaj scholar”. He has under his saffron robe the
Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award, the Right Livelihood Award,
and the Rev. M.A. Thomas National Rights Award. He describes himself
as “the most distinguished leader of the Arya Samaj” though this has
been questioned, as has his fascination for Mother Teresa, his
infatuation for Mother Sonia (“only light of hope of spirituality at
end of dark tunnel”), and his unabashed admiration for Islam and
Pakistan.
Kiran Bedi’s service record was actually far from distinguished; she
was professionally unreliable and untrustworthy; deserted her post
more than once; and expected favouritism because she was a woman
officer. She excels at public and media relations and, over the years,
picked up a Magsaysay award and awards from the American Federation of
Muslims of Indian Origin, the Don Bosco Shrine, the Mother Teresa
Memorial National Award for Social Justice, and other such assorted
goodies. The Hindu (Delhi) on its front page on 6/4/11 had a picture
of Bedi carefully situating right next to the fasting-unto-death Anna
Hazare a placard that announced “bhrashtachar ko khatm karo -
www.jnss.in”.
JNSS is the Jagruk Nagrik Suraksha Sangathan (National President: Mr
Denson Joseph). It proclaims itself nationalist and anti-terrorist and
“salutes and supports the efforts of all agencies working hand in hand
to secure the nation”. These agencies are the Home Ministry, the Delhi
Police, BSF, NSS, CISF, and the United Nations! It solicits donations
- but nowhere on its website does it give its accounts. Prominent with
Hazare when he began his fast were “Arvind Kejriwal along with Mallika
Sarabhai and Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey”, and “famous
former top cop Kiran Bedi said all the activists present there would
be on a day-long hunger strike, but Hazare would continue his fast
till the Government agrees to our demands.”
Accused of cheating by dancers who filed a complaint against her,
Mallika Sarabhai declared “neither the country nor its people for whom
I have spent 25 years working deserve me”. Indians and India don’t
deserve Sarabhai, but does Sarabhai deserve India? How much in those
25 years was not motivated by her desire for profit or for her own
greater glory? I can personally testify to the desperation with which
the dancing-Sarabhais sought government sponsorship and recognition.
There are thousands upon thousands of jawans who are far greater
patriots than her - and don’t boast about it. They are prepared to die
for the country that Sarabhai wanted to flee because her
fellow-dancers accused her of cheating them. Why did her most vocal
defenders not include any of her dancer peers? Was this because,
within the dancer sorority, they were aware there was more to the
Sarabhai publicly-cultivated image than met the eye?
Was she not, through this particular contract that was challenged by
the dancers, peddling to them her saleability? Was she not touting her
own brand image to introduce them - on payment by them to her or her
organization - to foreign audiences that they could not have managed
on their own? If (according to The Pioneer, Nov 2, 2003) 13 dancers
complained about her, had she not netted from them a cool Rs. 2.60
lakhs for not taking them abroad!? And, if they felt cheated because
she took their money - but not them - and she claimed she acted
according to the terms of the contract, why should they not challenge
those terms? “…there is hardly any doubt that daal mein kuchh kala
hai, that something fishy has been happening over sending dance
troupes to the US by Ms Sarabhai’s academy”, wrote Chandan Mitra. As
it is kala in the daal of Mapin Publishing (co-founded by her and her
ex-husband and with which apparently she still is associated) that
welshes on its word and its payments (cases known personally to me).
Medha Patkar has the Right Livelihood Award, the Rev. M.A. Thomas
National Human Rights Award, Amnesty International’s Human Rights
Defender’s Award, and the BBC’s Green Ribbon Award for Best
International Political Campaigner. Her Narmada Bachao Andolan is
described as a “social movement”. Presumably this social movement
handles money, if only for its own expenses. But the Supreme Court has
noted the NBA is not a registered entity. So how does it bank its
money? How does it account for its expenses? The NBA, which has
international connections, does not seem to have its own website.
Foreign sources funded its support groups. Accused of faking medical
certificates, fined more than once for dodging court hearings, Patkar
is now accused by the Supreme Court itself of filing a false affidavit
before it.
Magsaysay awardee Sandeep Pandey and his Asha for Education have a
full chapter to themselves in theVigil book that details their magic
of making foreign money disappear after it reaches them, their allergy
to professional accounting, and (in the book’s Appendix 12) his
blatant lying to the Deccan Chronicle.
Now, India Against Corruption solicits donations. But it doesn’t
solicit them in its own name. It solicits money in the name of the
Public Cause Research Foundation (PCRF). In other words, the money you
donate for IAC’s work actually goes into PCRF’s pocket. Guess who set
up and runs PCRF? Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Abhinandan
Sekhri, started with the Magsaysay money to Kejriwal. It is not clear
from its website under what law it is registered, but it was filing a
tax return in Form ITR 7 and claiming s.80G exemption.
Let us look at Public Cause Research Foundation’s accounts:
1. For FY 2006-2007, PCRF reported Rs 51,434/- as utilized for
charitable purposes - though actually all this was was entirely
office/admn. expenses. It reported an opening corpus fund of Rs
13,01,000/- and a closing corpus fund of Rs 12, 49,566. In other
words, it utilized its corpus fund solely for routine office/admn.
expenses.
2. For FY 07-08, PCRF reported Rs.6,31,797/- utilized for
charitable purposes - again, actually all this plus another Re. 0.90
was entirely office/admn. expenses (including salaries of Rs
3,26,600/- and legal exp. of Rs 91,209/-). It reported donations
received of Rs 21,400/-, loans and advances of Rs 2,15,000/-, and a
closing corpus fund of Rs 14,49,168.10/-. Its corpus fund statement as
on 31/3/08 showed for “specific corpus fund” an opening balance on
1/4/07 of Rs 1,000/- only and an addition during the year of Rs
8,10,000/-. And as “nonspecific corpus fund”, an opening balance of Rs
12,48,566/-. The loan of Rs 2,15,000/- was “Kabir Loan 200,000.00” and
“Loan to Parivartan (Mangal surat) 15,000/-”.
3. The Parivartan is presumably Kejriwal-Sisodia’s Parivartan.
Kabir appears to be the registered society “spun off of Parivartan”.
Founder-member Manish Sisodia is also its “Chief Functionary”; Kabir’s
governing body includes Arvind Kejriwal. Though founded in 1999,
Kabir’s website reports no financial details.
4. For the year ending 31/3/09, PCRF omits the ITR scans, the
corpus fund is now Rs 31,51,416/-, the loans and advances are Rs
2,46,274/-, and the office and admn. expenses are Rs 8,10,078.10/-. No
donations are reported, and there is no financial information for
after 31/3/09.
5. Kejriwal’s Parivartan was analysed in the Vigil book. Manish
Sisodia was Parivartan’s founder-member and treasurer. Kejriwal and
Sisodia founded PCRF, Sisodia founded Kabir, and together they
“govern” it. Note the incestuous connections between all these
different agencies actively soliciting money from the public, and note
the opacity of their publicly-declared accounts. Kejriwal was in the
income-tax service. Surely he understands accounting.
6. Prima facie, your IAC money – which you gave because of
Hazare? - is channeled into Kejriwal-Sisodia’s PCRF and from there
into Kejriwal-Sisodia’s Kabir and possibly Kejriwal-Sisodia’s
Parivartan.
As was asked about Parivartan, “This is transparency? This is
accountability? Something wrong with their maths? Or with their
morals?”
A “triumvirate” of an ex-police officer, an ex-income tax officer and
a very worldly godman publicly abet an old Gandhian’s attempted
suicide, while they themselves have no intention of shuffling off
their mortal coil. Their personal ambitions become apparent, and there
are “sharp differences in movement over spoils” – “both Kejriwal and
Agnivesh can leave if they cannot sink their differences,” said
Hazare.
Here was Hazare fasting-unto-death and Bedi withdrew from the
dharnasthal because of “poor health”! Agnivesh opened his own direct
line to the Congress. Kejriwal declared, “A 73-year-old man is
fasting-unto-death… He is fighting for each one of you and for your
children’s future. This is your last chance…” And then Kejriwal
smartly seized his chance and out-manoeuvred both Bedi and Agnivesh!
Sonia Gandhi’s NAC colleague Aruna Roy is emerging from the woodwork
(yes, this is the same Aruna Roy whose duplicity is detailed in the
Vigil book, and who calls the Indian government “fascist” but has no
qualms sitting at its highest table with the de facto head of this
fascist government to “advise” her and it).
- “…who will decide who are representatives of civil society
for the joint committee? Anyone and everyone can claim that they are
part of civil society so must be included into this panel to formulate
the Lokpal Bill.”
Of all the “civil society” activists featured here, Kejriwal has
ensured he’s the only one into the joint drafting committee. Thus,
Arvind Kejriwal, of dubious accounting fame, now represents at the
national level our country’s “civil society”.
Anna Hazare demanded “there should be no tainted ministers in the
committee. Asked if there were five untainted ministers in the
government, Hazare said `they should be least tainted’.”
The public official must be “untainted” or, at any rate, “least
tainted”. Fair enough. So, we assume the five ministers named to the
joint drafting committee and accepted by Hazare are untainted or the
least tainted, including Kapil Sibal who publicly castigated the
country’s Comptroller & Auditor General and equally publicly absolved
Spectrum Raja of any wrongdoing!
But, characteristically, what’s sauce for the sarkari goose is never
sauce for these “civil society” ganders.
Of the “triumvirate” that negotiated the joint drafting committee’s
composition, is Arvind Kejriwal really “untainted;” or, of the three,
the “least tainted”? As the primary negotiator on behalf of Hazare,
was it ethical of him that he negotiate his own name? If Justice
Santosh Hegde who is Hazare’s first choice could suggest Justice J.S.
Verma rather than himself as the “ideal person” to be the committee’s
Chair, why could Kejriwal not insist on some other “civil society”
activist for the committee? Was he negotiating for his own inclusion
and/or ensuring the exclusion of Bedi and Agnivesh?
All these so-called civil society activists will be aware of the legal
doctrine of clean hands. Yet, as is amply clear, they demand public
officials have clean hands even as their own hands stink.
Questions arise:
1. Baba Ramdev has been doing far more to raise popular
awareness against corruption than this lot, yet neither the
English-language mainstream media nor these so-called civil society
activists extended to him the “civil society” support they extended to
Hazare. Why not?
2. None of these so-called civil society activists has stood for
popular election, whether State Assembly or Parliament, except Mallika
Sarabhai (and she was roundly trounced by the electorate, losing her
deposit). So, whom do they really represent?
3. Why does Anna Hazare promote that extra-Constitutional “civil
society” bastion called the National Advisory Council headed by Sonia
Gandhi? He “sought to project that Gandhi and he were on the same page
on the issue of an effective Lokpal Bill”.
4. Whatever the merit of the cause, is Anna Hazare wittingly or
unwittingly a pawn in the unclean hands of these “civil society”
activists?
5. Of IAC’s 19 others who “started the movement” with Anna
Hazare, how many and which ones showed up to express solidarity when
he started his “fast-unto-death”? Only four – Agnivesh, Bedi, Sarabhai
and Kejriwal. Why didn’t the other founders join him?
6. Finally, there will be expenses, if only on the bandobast of
this “fast-unto-death” mela. Who is providing the money? And who is
keeping the accounts?
Krishen Kak is a retired civil servant and co-editor of Vigil’s “NGOs,
Activists and Foreign Funds: Anti-Nation Industry”
'We will rape you, then parade you naked' - Threats from 'Sangh Parivar' 'Sangh Parivar activists threatened to rape us' VIJI SUNDARAM INDIAWEST[ THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2005 10:36:22 AM ] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...ow/1156238.cms San Francisco-based academic Angana Chatterji, along with other women members of the Indian People's Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights, was allegedly threatened with rape by some members of the Sangh Parivar on June 14 while investigating the spread of communalism and human rights violations in Orissa. The women claim they were defamed, insulted and falsely accused of bias as they were deposing residents of Bhubaneswar, some from the Sangh Parivar itself. "The Hindu nationalist organizations (Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Rashtriya Sevika Samiti) have maligned and targeted the Tribunal and its members," wrote Chatterji in a letter to India's National Human Rights Commission, calling for an investigation. ". . . Especially, they have continued to directly intimidate and verbally attack me since the incident, as I remain in Orissa for a few days to continue the Tribunal's work." The Indian People's Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights was formed June 5, 1993. Its stated purpose is to conduct fair and credible investigations focusing on issues concerning human rights and environmental justice. Chatterji said she has been working for the rights of the oppressed in Orissa since 1995. The alleged threats came by fax from the state office of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, lambasting the tribunal as a group of "leftists, fellow travelers and Hindu baiters." The fax made a pointed reference to Chatterji, an associate professor of anthropology at the San Francisco-based California Institute for Integral Studies. "The inclusion of an NRI well-known for anti-Hindu activities in the US suggests foreign funds from sources bent on destabilizing the country," the fax said. Following disclosure of the note, Sangh Parivar members present at the deposition allegedly demanded that tribunal members hand over the taped recordings of testimony they had gathered, else they would forcibly take possession of them. Chatterji, who had possession of the tapes, refused, but destroyed the tapes in front of the Parivar members, according to an IPT press release she sent India-West . The tribunal members, mostly women, then dispersed, canceling the rest of their planned activities for that day, including a press conference. Chatterji said that once outside, Sangh members berated the tribunal, calling it a foreign-funded organization designed to spoil its image. "This is an IPT funded by the foreign funding agencies to tarnish the image of the Hindu Rashtra, and we will rape these women," one of them said, she alleged. "We will parade them naked." Two former chief justices in the tribunal, KK Usha and RA Mehta, called the threats "shocking, outrageous and highly deplorable." "It is reprehensible," noted Chatterji in her letter to the secretary-general of the NHRC, "that these persons undermined the Indian People's Tribunal, which was founded June 5, 1993, based on a people's mandate to conduct principled investigations that focus on issues of human rights and social and environmental justice." In a telephone interview with India-West from Mumbai earlier this week, Chatterji said that she and fellow members of the tribunal want to help the minorities in such places as Orissa and Rajasthan where "there's violence every day" and where there is a "rise in Hindutva." "One way it can all be brought to light is by holding inquiries" of the kind the members of the People's Tribunal are doing, Chatterji said. She told a reporter that after the June 14 incident, she received an anonymous call that warned her that "if I did not behave like a woman should, I would be raped, murdered, then cut into pieces, and no one would know how it happened." Following the incident, a number of political activists and other groups protested the threats and demanded a prompt investigation. The All India Democratic Women's Association-Orissa and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) condemned the incident. Called for a comment, Gaurang Vaishnav, general secretary of the VHP-America, told India-West that he wasn't aware of the Orissa incident, but since "Angana Chatterji's credentials are so suspect" and "with her long history of being anti-RSS, I won't believe all that she says." "Looking at what she has done to Hindus, it's very clear that she's not a person whom I'd trust," he asserted. The outspoken Kolkata-born Chatterji was in the forefront of the successful U.S. campaign to stop Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi from coming to the US last March, a move that earned her the ire of the VHP. She said she has been working with advocacy research in Orissa since 1995, making two trips a year to India for this purpose. The literacy rate in the impoverished state of Orissa, whose population is 37 million, is below the national level of 65 percent, with only 34 percent of women literate. According to news reports, in recent years, the Sangh Parivar has been trying to bring back into the Hindu fold the tribals and so-called untouchables who embraced Christianity or Islam with hopes for a better life. Mohammed Khan, Maryland-based national coordinator of the Indian Muslim Council-USA, said that his group has been touch with Chatterji via e-mail, and that she had gone to India to assist in the "human rights situation" in Orissa. The IMC coordinated the efforts of those who campaigned against Modi's proposed visit to the U.S. "I have to commend her courage" for doing what she believes in, Khan said. Rasheed Ahmed, vice president IMC-USA, said in a press release: "The poor in India have little or no access to the courts, and the costs involved are prohibitive. Through the process of investigations by Peoples Tribunal, victim communities have the opportunity to voice their grievances." Last week, in an open letter sent to Chatterji's boss at the California Institute of Integral Studies, endorsed by 469 members of a newly formed group called Citizens Insisting on Integrity in Scholarship (a name formed by using the first letters of the school's name), one person wrote: "Angana Chatterji comes from a long line of pseudo-secularists who have learnt to farm the fear of minority communities for their own personal advancement." Another called her "a hate-mongering communist," while yet another said: "The California Institute of Integral Studies has been the center of political propaganda in the name of 'anthropological activism' for quite some time."Advani: Manmohan Singh must resign; hold fresh elections Nellore, Andhra Pradesh: Alleging that Congress-led UPA government was steeped in corruption and had failed to control inflation, BJP leader L K Advani today said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should quit and hold fresh elections, as the ruling alliance has lost confidence of the people. Advani, who was in Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, to participate in a function said: "This government is totally corrupt. The Prime Minister has a great reputation of being an economist. But the common man is shocked to find that ever since this government has come to power, prices have been going up and up." A series of scams have come to light in the last few years for which UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister should be held responsible, he said. It is wrong to say that the UPA government has sent corrupt leaders to jail, Advani said, adding that former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi were put behind bars because of the CAG report and judiciary action.