The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate
P.O. Box 20136 Stanford CA 94309
Breaking News From the UK
Channel 4 Report on Hindutva's Foreign Funding from
the UK:
Report Links Sewa International and IDRF Funded
Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram Directly to Violence
At 7 PM (GMT) 12/12/02 Channel 4's main News Report of the day
carried a detailed story on the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS - the
RSS's Overseas Wing), Sewa International (one of the Sangh's flagship
Seva Vibhag units and main front in the UK) and its funding of the
Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (VKA), implicating the latter (VKA) in the
anti-minority violence of March-April 2002. Segments of the transcript
are available at: http://www.channel4.com/news/home/z/stories/20021212/guj.html and
the full video can be seen at: http://www.channel4.com/news/home/z/stories/20021212/4guj.ram.
In an investigation that spanned the UK and Gujarat, India, Channel
4 reporters uncovered the following salient facts:
- The HSS and Sewa International are part of the Sangh Parivar.
The Sewa International has no claims to being an independent entity
unconnected to the Sangh because for all its donation transactions
it has simply borrowed the HSS's charity account number.
- The Sewa International (SI) funds the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram
in Gujarat.
- The Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Gujarat is directly implicated
in the February-March 2002 anti-muslim pogrom. The news report
documents "forensic" evidence (by way of an FIR) that
implicates a leading member of the VKA, who is currently "on
the run from the police," as "leading a mob of 2,000
tribal people" in an attack on muslim minorities. Further,
the story also reports that the VKA leader "threatened the
villagers saying that if they didn't join in provoking the Muslims
and burning them, they would also be treated like Muslims and burnt."
- The report also documents how mainstream, respectable organizations
have unwittingly supported the SI, and through it the activities
of the Sangh, without being fully aware of how the money was being
used. SI has been praised by Prince Charles, has recruited four
peers as patrons, and has been supported by schools and councils
across Britain. Many of its supporters, when confronted with the
knowledge of its activities in India, expressed surprise at its
connections with the Sangh and remorse at having been associated
with it.
The Channel 4 report is a direct confirmation of the evidence and
conclusions arrived at by the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH).
On November 20th a report jointly published by SACW and Sabrang Communications
had also linked the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), a Maryland,
US based charity, with sectarian hate and violence in India and pointed
to exactly the same organization - the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram -- as
one of IDRF's most significant fund recipients. The Campaign also
has maintained that IDRF's claim of being unconnected to the Sangh
is fundamentally misleading. IDRF and its affiliates in the US have
tried to deny any links to sectarian hate by repeating an unsubstantiated
claim that they only fund development. The Channel 4 report is an
independent corroboration of the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate's
conclusion that IDRF funds sectarian hate programs in India.
With the clear implication of IDRF and SI in the funding of the
Sangh and the IDRF/SI funded Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in the program
of sectarianism and violence in India, the IDRF stands completely
exposed. As clearly documented in "The Foreign Exchange of Hate" IDRF
lists Sewa International as 'IDRF India' and Shyam Parande, the General
Secretary of Sewa International, as IDRF Advisor in India (http://www.idrf.org/contacts/contacts.htm#india ).
Further, the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Gujarat is one of the nine organizations
listed in IDRF's tax exemption application with the US Federal government.
The Channel 4 report not only implicates the VKA, Gujarat in the
violence but also suggests that the absconding VKA leader is himself
the person in charge of the work done with the foreign funds.
Responding to the news of the Channel 4 report, Shalini Gera of
the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate said: "The evidentiary loop
is complete. This far IDRF's only defense was to distance itself
from the violence. Now with this report it is time for it to face
up to its direct links to the funding of violence." The Campaign
to Stop Funding Hate joins its secular compatriots in Awaaz, UK in
demanding that the Charity Commissioner of UK withdraw the Sangh's
status as a charity as well as renews its demands with MNC's in the
US to strike IDRF from its list of charities. As Ali Mir, a member
of the CSFH put it: "the case is sealed."
The Channel 4 report is produced by Rob Lemkin (rl@oldstreetfilms.com)
and Arlen Harris (arlen@harris-vajda.demon.co.uk).
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