HVK Archives: Donation to Clinton puts Gandhi foundation chief under a cloud
Donation to Clinton puts Gandhi foundation chief under a cloud - The Afternoon
Manuwant K. Choudhary
()
17 October 1996
Title : Donation to Clinton puts Gandhi foundation
chief under a cloud
Author : Manuwant K. Choudhary
Publication : The Afternoon
Date : October 17, 1996
Mr. Yogesh Gandhi, the great-grand-nephew of Mahatma
Gandhi and founder president of the Gandhi Foundation, is
under a cloud for having donated US$ 325,000 towards the
presidential election campaign of Bill Clinton. This is
the highest donation given by an individual to a politi-
cal party.
A journalist from the `Wall Street Journal', Washington
D.C., is on the beat making inquiries regarding the
source of Mr. Gandhi's funds and also his bona fides.
This reporter received telephone calls from the Wall
Street Journal, Washington, as well as ABC News, Atlanta,
since we were the only newspaper to have interviewed Mr
Yogesh Gandhi when he visited India last year.
The American media have been unable to contact Mr Gandhi
and they were told he was travelling. Another reporter
was told he is away in Japan.
It may be recalled that Mr. Yogesh Gandhi had visited
Mumbai last October where D.r. Hogen Fukunaga, a Japanese
environmentalist, was given the Mahatma Gandhi World
Peace Award 1995 at the Hotel Oberoi. However, Dr. Fuku-
naga had as a goodwill gesture offered the cash prize
worth US $ 25,000 to Dr. Usha Mehta of Mani Bhavan.
Later Mr. Yogesh Gandhi had announced a US $ 1 million
programme to install computers in primary schools in
India.
While Dr. Mehta had publicly accepted the donation at the
function, she later turned it down. Some of the reasons
given were that Mr. Yogesh Gandhi wanted to be on the
Mani Bhavan Trust along with Mr. Murli Deora. The other
objection by Dr. Mehta was that Mr. Yogesh Gandhi did not
agree to her idea to set up a Gandhi Centre in rural
Maharashtra.
The $ 25,000 was then offered to the Bharatiya Vidya
Bhavan. Mr. Yogesh Gandhi and Mr. Murli Deora, now
former member of Parliament, are members on the board for
the computer programme of the Bhavan. Mr. Deora has been
installing the computers with the said amount.
The journalist from the 'Wall Street Journal' made in-
depth inquiries about whether the money was being in fact
spent and who are the people associated with the Bhara-
tiya Vidya Bhavan.
The donation made by Mr. Yogesh Gandhi towards the cam-
paign of Mr. Bill Clinton is higher than some the insti-
tutional donations like Teachers Union etc.
This has raised eyebrows since Mr. Gandhi made the dona-
tion in his personal capacity and a charitable foundation
like the Gandhi Foundation is not permitted to make
political donations.
The journalist felt that Mr. Yogesh Gandhi was being
funded by immigrants who had not received a residency and
hence were not able to contribute legally to electioneer-
ing and seek favours.
Mr. Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi,
was questioned telephonically by the 'Wall Street Jour-
nal' for more then one hour. When this reporter contact-
ed him he said, "It was almost like an interrogation.
Even the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) would not
spend so much time. The journalist asked me questions
like whether drug cartels were behind Mr. Gandhi's
funds."
When asked whether he was aware of Mr. Yogesh Gandhi, Mr.
Tushar Gandhi replied, 'His real name is Mr. Yogesh
Kothari and ever since he made his appearance last year
we are trying to find out who this person is. In fact,
when Dr. Usha Mehta consulted us whether she should
accept the money from him, our family had advised against
it, considering we never knew anything about his source
of funds. And Yogesh never came out in the open about
his sources."
He continued, "He may be a descendant of Mr. Shyamaldas
Gandhi, founder of 'Janmaboomi', and a relative of Mahat-
ma Gandhi. But that is not enough for him to make his
connections with out family name. We are trying to look
at the
Gujarati book 'Octbapanovadlo', published by Navjivan,
which gives the family tree of Uttam Chand Gandhi, who
was the grandfather of Mahatma Gandhi.,
According to Mr. Tushar Gandhi, 'India Times' in the US
was the first to break the news of Mr. Yogesh Gandhi's
donation to Mr. Bill Clinton. 'My father Arun Gandhi,
who lives in Memphis, has also been hounded, by journal-
ists.'
The 'Wall Street Journal' also made inquiries of hawala
funding and industrial houses funding elections. And
whether it was. possible for the Congress Party in India
to fund Bill Clinton. The American media are also inves-
tigating chances of Japanese funding.
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