INTRODUCTION
The India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) [i] is a volunteer charitable organization which raises money in the United States for projects in India. It has been in operation since 1987, and is today considered to be the most successful of Indian-American charitable organizations outside religious institutions. Its low-overhead, all-volunteer, shoe-string nature which makes it trusted by donors, also inhibits its name recognition and public-image operations. Its fundraising [ii] in 2001 of roughly $2M is a small fraction of the total funds sent to India annually by the roughly 2 million Indians and Indian-Americans (IIA) resident in America - much of which goes through banking, family or religious institution channels. In other words, IDRF’s utility to most of Indians/ Indian Americans is that it offers an alternative to the traditional religious / family channels of philanthropy.
For over 5 years now, the Forum of Indian Leftists [iii] has been targeting this organization for attacks, culminating in the orchestrated, staged November 2002 release of a “comprehensive 91-page report” [iv] on the alleged funelling of IDRF money to entities inciting communal riots and persecution of minorities in India. This "Foreign Exchange of Hate" report is very explicit in its “single, simple conclusion” [4]: “IDRF funds hate”.
The Petition by The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (TCSFH) - asking the US Government and corporations to ban IDRF, gathered 2766 signatures before Jan. 1, 2003 [v]. Started a week later, the Petition to Let India Develop, asking US corporations to not be cowed by the threats from the TCSHF, gathered 5621 signatures by the same date [vi]. Comments from voters are considered in later sections.
In this document, we examine the basis, assumptions, data, interpretation, and conclusions of this report. Given the nature of the report, we also found it essential to investigate and report on the backgrounds, affiliations, planning and motives of those responsible for the report. Due to the intense interest in this evolving situation, we have adopted a format conducive to evolution of the report.
The release of the report, with its synchronized media releases and petitions, has brought much publicity. It has also brought a massive, spontaneous reaction from those in the community who have some knowledge of what IDRF does, and how it does it, as well as the past exploits of the entities behind the Report. At this writing, there were two internet-based Petitions. Their progress is shown in Figure 1.1
Figure 1.1: Progress of support for the two Petitions
developed on the Internet regarding IDRF. “TCTSFH” is “The
Campaign to Stop Funding Hate”. “LID”
is “Let India Develop”.