Signs of ulterior motives

    It is said that history repeats itself and if the recent developments are any indication, then India and its people can expect to see more of the deadly deeds of yet another "Jaichand-Ghori" nexus !  A series of  developments , independent for an onlooker, but which reveals a pattern and some deadly connections at a closer study, had its latest strike when an "independent group of concerned NRIs" published a "study"  accusing a US based charity "IDRF" of funding hatred in India

    For the one not so well informed, the people behind it did not seem to have any other motive, but to opposse what they believed to be "sectarian charity" .And their report - a compilation of what was available on various websites including the very idrf website itself and interestingly also from the site "Jamatwada", a group which calls for Jehad (some claim it to be Lashkar-e-Toiba site)
( http://www.jamatwada.org/talaba )  . But the rediff report (http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/nov/20josy.htm )  which showed  the accusers  being pained with IDRF  helping Sep 11 victims , was a glimpse of the deeper motives of the group. No, it did not stop with that shade of anti-US , pro-Islamist stance, it went on to establish its displeasure at IDRF helping the victims of Islamic terrorism in Kahmir, Bangladesh and so on...

    That takes us to Kashmir... and to the group which published the report - Sabrang. Until Varsha Bhosle wrote her article on Nov 23, 2002,( http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/nov/23varsha.htm )    , they had two maps on the site  (http://www.sabrang.com/aman/index.htm ) showing Kashmir as part of Pakistan , and North east missing from India- and yeah pictures speak volumes.. . One of the maps was immediately removed and the other was removed in a few days - so here goes the two maps (link)

    Not surprising when you see that the report attacks IDRF for funding the "Martyrs for National Integration Fund"

Who worked behind this

    Let's dig deeper into their motives- now onto the people behind this report(as given at the end of the report )

 Mir Ali Reza  and Biju Mathews : Active volunteers of Forum of Indian Leftists ( http://www.proxsa.org/yss/org.html ), a group which opposses the US war on terrorism (http://www.proxsa.org/resources/9-11/index.html ) and many times is openly pro- islamic terrorism . In fact the site quotes Allama Iqbal as inspiration ( http://www.proxsa.org/inspiration/iqbal.html )
who is known to have made statements with the tone of islamic exclusivism . See for example

http://www.tolueislam.com/Bazm/IA_muslim_Decline.htm

.....this is the punishment, Muslims received, for sacrificing the Quranic principal of Tauheed. Allama Iqbal expressed it well:
" There is death for the nations, in detachment from the center, There is life for the nations, in attachment with the center"

"Tauheed (Islamic monotheism) means declaring Allah to be the only God, to believe that there is only one Lord for all the Universe and He is its creator, organiser, planner, sustainer and the giver of security, and that is Allah" ( http://www.islamicvoice.com/november.99/comparative.htm  )

    This much , is something obvious....

Hidden nexus?More on the increased anti-India activities
 

a) Evangelists

    Some more scattered connections, though does not conclusively prove much are good enough to leave doubts in one's mind .For example the FIACONA (a US Indian Christian body ) accusation  (http://www.hindustantimes.com/2002/Nov/22/181_107322,00050001.htm)

Curiously enough the FIACONA bigwig P D John , in a public meeting , many weeks before the report was published said that some groups are working on a report on IDRF and they will come out with it at the "right" time , showing clearly that Christian groups were aware of this . No wonder the demand was made within hours of the release of the report!

b) Fake Shankaracharya

So what eh? Has he done anything anti India? Well,   P D John opens up a wealth of contacts... Take a look at

( http://www.pakistanlink.com/Community/2002/August/02/01.html )

(Another article showed that this event was organised mainly by "PIFRAS" headed by PDJohn, a group working basically for two things 1) To brainwash Hindus, especially American borns, 2) To potray Hinduism in a bad light among Americans)

At a quick look , a "religious harmony" programme! Take a closer look at the people

* Kaleem Kawaja, the head of American Indian Muslims, a Taliban Sympathiser ( Can you spare a tear for the TALIBAN ? http://www.pakistanlink.com/Letters/2002/Feb/08/10.html )

* John Dayal, a leading evangelist of India, AICC  Secretary General

* and from the Hindu side "Shankaracharya of Puri" . Waw! Look how tolerant these people are, inviting one of the highest representatives of Hinudism!  Wait a minute, the person mentioned here is undoubtebly NOT A SHANKARACHARYA , he is most likely an ISI agent, at best a petty criminal , an imposter. Can't believe it ? Read the reports at (http://www.indiacause.com/IC11_SCharya.htm)

If not all the reports, read these two-the one about his arrest, (http://www.indiacause.com/IC11_SCharya.htm) and the other about how congress party is using him (http://indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=8116)
That gives another possible meaning to PD John's "right time" - Gujarat elections??

DON'T  THINK SO? WELL, HOW ABOUT IF I TELL YOU THAT  THE SAME GROUP (COMMUNALISM COMBAT IS A BRANCH OF SABRANG) WAS FUNDED BY  CONGRESS AND LEFT PARTIES FOR ELECTION CAMPAIGN!!
   http://www.humanscapeindia.net/humanscape/hs1199/hs11997t.htm

The ad campaign is reported to have cost approximately 1.5  crores. Who funded it?
                        The Congress, CPI, CPM and about ten prominent individuals.

The report accuses IDRF of duping NRIs. What about the publishers of the report duping the world with a fake Shankaracharya? ( http://www.sabrang.com/gujarat/statement/statement.htm )

Note the presence of AFMI people in the above meeting, who hosted the fake for their programme. How broadminded!
Why not, as the fake calls the PM and Home Minister of India as "terrorists"

No, not just them, two of the very writers of this report Shalini Gera and Girish Agarwal have perpetrated this myth about the fake being Shankaracharya ( http://www.ektaonline.org/cac/resources/articles/myths+facts.htm )

 something fishy ??

c) More...

let's dig more..

In the FOIL mail list, some one named "Harsh Kapoor" is known to have mailed about the Nov 20th press release    two days before - a clear example of involvement with the rreport . He is supposed to be very close with another charity
 ( http://www.ashanet.org/stanford/misc/saffronization/?a=07 )

whose founder and beneficiary ( http://www.ashanet.org/stanford/meetings/agendas/agenda_2002_05.html )
"Sandeep Pandey" was in news recently for his anti-India, anti US statements !!
Sandeep Pandey is also known to be a Naxal sympathiser (http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/nov/15naxal.htm)

another conection, or just a coincidence?

One has more reasons to doubt when volunteers of the same organisation "Ashish Chaddha and Akhila Raman " take part in programmes together with Shalini Gera ( http://bangladesh-web.com/news/apr/30/ca30042002.htm )
and when Ashish Chaddha is among the first who signed the petition against IDRF , and when Akhila Raman tries to "prove" India's "illegal occupation" of Kashmir!

Mind you, in the report , at the point where it mentions about the Corporate funding, feels sorry for the above organisation getting only a small amount!

Are we reading too much between the lines ? So then how about this link

 (http://www.proxsa.org/resources/ghadar/v5n2/organizing.html )

which shows the groups which FOIL works closely with .....

More than one reasons for trying to discredit IDRF ?...

So then What's wrong in young people coming together with FOIL and doing good work ?
O yeah, good work, that's what this magazine, one of whose contributors is "Vijay Prashad", another FOIL member writes ( http://www.littleindia.com/india/Sept2k/mind.htm ) . But then, for those sharp eyes, look at the sixth picture
"India , free Kashmir" ! Many of the organisations which so far flashed in many of the sites above, gets a mention on their banners too!

Fioler's anti-US Stance
 

From  a discussion in FOIL list about petitioning Ashcroft regarding the same issue, here are some excerpts

 Shekhar Ramakrishnan from Columbia University :
                    If a letter to Ashcroft as Attorney-General is part of a legal move,
                   that is one thing. But a petition to him appears to be a political move,
                   appealing to him (or seeking to pressure him) to act in some way.
                    That seems problematic to me, given his total lack of respect for any
                    civil liberties, for noncitizens and ciitzens alike.

                   I would suggest that Kaleem review the "petition" carefully and see if
                    an appeal to this man, who is quite happy to put any number of us
                    behind bars, with no charges and no trial, is appropriate.

Waheed Mukkaddam replies :

                    Briefly.  It is difficult to write letters to Ashcroft while we are
                   also protesting a large number of illegal arrests and other harassment of
                   progressive people.  It s worth noting that the attacks are slowly but
                   surely shifting towards all progressive people and not on Muslims  alone.

Note the displeasure about arrests of Progressives AND MUSLIMS

Language of the report

    On the one hand the report fails to prove anything, but on the other, it opens up quite some examples of bias, half truths and lies. Its not the purpose of this article to defend IDRF or "sangh", or to talk about their work- that's for them to do- but to question some of the basic assumptions made in the report.

    First , To the question of tribals and Hinduism , the writers seem be unaware (or deliberate omission) of the Niyogi Committee report on Missionary activities in India (One of the members of the Committee was a Christian)

http://www.voi.org/books/ncr

The Niyogi Commission's Report of the Christian
Missionaries Enquiry Committee MP, Nagpur, 1956 (Vol I, Part I, Chapter I) states,

    Out of the many such biases, the next striking feature is the total silence about the amount of money that Christian missionaries and Muslim groups have been pumping into India . Given below are some comparisons of the amount with that of the amount IDRF disburses in India. And mind you , many of these Christians groups, if we go by the standards of judging a "religious", "sectarian" institute as given by the authors of the report, will fall into some of the most indoctrinating groups, which could be deadly as far as spreading religious hatred goes! But that doesn't count because the report has only one intention. And if that intention is not clear to you by now, then you are one of them the report was targetting!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 'Appendix':
IDRF is supposed to have raised $10 million in 25 years or so of its service. That is less than Rs 50 crores. Compare it with other groups... Here is from some Govt of India documents
 

 http://mha.nic.in/fore.htm

7. The leading donor agency was World Vision International, USA (Rs
              80.43 crores), followed by Foster Parents Plan International, USA
              (Rs. 76.37 crores), and Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, USA (Rs.
              68.11 crores).

THIS IS THE DONATION IN A SINGLE YEAR 2000-01 . AND JUST BY TWO CHRISTIAN GROUPS TOGETHER (NEARLY 150 CRORES) DWARFS IDRF DONATIONS OVER 25 YEARS

and see the World Vision site

http://www.wvi.org/wvi/whoweare/faqs.htm#christian
 

              Is evangelism always a part of World Vision's projects?
              In all World Vision projects, staff are ready to give a reason for
              their hope and their labours. Christian education is included in
              project activities whenever appropriate and desired by the community.
              In many countries where we work, formal public evangelism is
              forbidden by government policy and we respect this.

and want to see more figures?

http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/archives/archives2000/kashmir20000212b.html

12 February 2000
     Daily Excelsior

     NEW DELHI: The Government has obtained fresh evidence about the creation of a "special fund" for
     setting up new mosques and more madrassas in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in India till the end of
     2002.

     The "special fund", according to the evidence, has been created by five countries, namely, Saudi Arabia,
     Pakistan, Egypt, Libya and Sudan. Intelligence inputs, now being examined by the Government of India,
     reveal that extremist Muslim fundamentalists in these countries have so far generated more than Rs
     3,000 crores for the "special fund".

This is for Jammu and Kashmir alone.......and we all know how much "development" there has been in J and K

and more

                      http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/projects/asia/afghanistan_southasia/reports/A40\
                      0717_29072002.pdf

                     Some excerpts from section 3.F (Finance)
                      -------------------------------------------------------
                      Madrasas and mosques seek alms in cash and kind.
                      They do it very efficiently - each year, they collect
                      over 70 billion rupees (around U.S.$1.1 billion) from
                      resident Pakistanis. In comparison the zakat collected
                      annually by the government is not more than 4.5
                      billion rupees (U.S.$75 million) - only a tenth of
                      which is meant for madrasas.On the other hand, 94
                      per cent of charitable donations made by Pakistani
                      individuals and corporations goes to religious
                      institutions and causes, and 98 per cent of donors cite
                      religion as their main motivation.
                      -------------------------------------------------------

Well friends, I did not have time to research on how muh is pumped into

Ya ya, I did notice that its Pakistan, but don't you think quite some part of that money is "utilised" in India. ? How nice of our dear brothers......