"Each
time the practices of RSS and its front organizations are brought
into focus, RSS tries to
shift the focus from the claims and contentions, onto the people
challenging the RSS and their motivations." |
A
Foreign Exchange of Hate: |
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Petitions Stop
Corporate Sponsorship of IDRF Stop
Funding Hate Campaign Responds to IDRF's Rebuttal |
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PRESS RELEASE
Date/Time: Tuesday March 01, 2004 The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH) thanks the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) for its statement of February 27th, 2004 clarifying that the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) is indeed a “Hindu organization”, closely related to the Sangh Parivar. That has been our claim all along. In contrast to the current RSS statement, the IDRF continues to mislead the public by claiming to be a secular, broad based organization funding “development” and “relief” programs in India. It is nothing more than a US fundraising front for RSS groups in India. Just as the Foreign Exchange of Hate (FxH) report published by Sabrang in November 2002 showed that IDRF was RSS’ s funding arm in the US, so also the recently released British Report by Awaaz South Asia Watch (www.awaazsaw.org) shows a comprehensive connection between Sewa International UK (SIUK), HSS and the RSS. Just as the IDRF did in November 2002, SIUK and HSS have over the last two days claimed that they have no connection with the RSS. Mere assertion, however, proves nothing. If
the RSS/IDRF wishes to refute the core findings of the FxH report
it must do so with evidence. The
meticulously detailed
FxH report’s (www.stopfundinghate.org/)
main findings are:
IDRF is directly implicated in violence against minorities because of its long and continuing support of the various Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams. The FxH report highlighted the case of Swami Aseemanand, of Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, Gujarat, who was instrumental in creating the atmosphere of terror and fear amongst the Christian communities in the Dangs in 1998, 1999, where he conducted forcible conversions of Christians, and also organized large-scale rallies on Christian religious days. After the Gujarat carnage of 2002, the Swami has resurfaced in the Dangs again, as the head of the Mata Shabari Sewa Samiti and is reportedly holding Ram Kathas which are accompanied by extensive anti-Christian pamphleteering by the VHP, and have been attended by Narendra Modi and his cabinet minister, Karsan Patel, amongst others [3]. The IDRF has yet to explain its relation to Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad which is listed as “IDRF supported project in Gujarat” and is part of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram family, which received $63,205 from IDRF in 2001 [4]. If the RSS/IDRF wishes to refute the above findings, they will have to place before the public evidence that contradicts the main findings of the FxH report. Instead of directly challenging any of the claims of the FxH report, IDRF/ RSS have been content to question the motivations of the authors of the report, and label it as “malicious propaganda.” This pattern is again evident in the RSS response to the UK group Awaaz-South Asia Watch’s report on Sewa International UK and its ties with the RSS. Each time the practices of RSS and its front organizations are brought into focus, RSS tries to shift the focus from the claims and contentions, onto the people challenging the RSS and their motivations. We welcome the media to check our credentials—the CSFH collective consists of professionals and academicians from the Indian diaspora, belonging to different religious faiths and political persuasions, who have a long history of being actively involved in many struggles for social and economic justice. However, we feel that the interests of the public are better served if the focus remains on the data presented in the report, and an examination of its conclusions, rather than the credentials of the authors and supporters. [1] Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt from Tax, 2001 filed
by IDRF, available at www.guidestar.org
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