HVK Archives: Subversion through foreign funds
Subversion through foreign funds - The Observer
TV Rajeswar's
()
17 October 1996
Title : Subversion through foreign funds
Author : TV Rajeswar's
Publication : The Observer
Date : October 17, 1996
While reviewing the CBI Investigations in the St Kitts
case, the Supreme Court bench of Justice J S Verma and
Justice P N Kirpal directed that a thorough probe be
carried out into the antecedents of donors and the dona-
tions amounting to crores of rupees to Chandraswamy's
charitable and religious trust.
The judges observed that no one in the country could have
a moment's rest till all the ramifications were found
out. The donations were not mere philanthropy and the
issues transgressed the borders of India.
The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act of 1976 and
subsequent amendments thereof have stringent provisions
making It obligatory for the recipient of foreign dona-
tion for obtaining prior permission in certain categories
involving foreign sources and for submitting periodical
reports giving full details to the Ministry of Home
Affairs.
The concerned branch in the Home Ministry works in close
collaboration with intelligence agencies for making
necessary inquiries in respect of suspicious donations or
the donors.
It is possible that Chandraswamy, with his extra consti-
tutional authority and influence, had influenced the
authorities into merely accepting the periodical state-
ments without asking probing questions.
Christian missionaries and their missions, Islamic insti-
tutions, Tabligh organizations etc receive considerable
amount of funds from abroad.
In the tribal areas, the Christian evangelism consider-
ably depends ?n the educational and medical institutions
they run and also the largesse in cash or kind distribut-
ed by the missionaries
among the tribal converts.
There is no shortage of funds as some of the well known
and leading aid agencies in Germany and US are known to
be liberal donors for the missions in the developing
countries including India.
Likewise, the muslim institutions and organizations
receive large donations from West Asian countries. In
addition, politicians and religious preachers go out to
West Asian countries and make large collections.
Muslim League politicians from Kerala have been doing
this for years and so are the Islamic leaders from UP and
the various political groups in J&k.
How much of the collections are declared on return to
India has how much are left behind could not be found out
easily.
Foreign embassies, especially those representing major
powers, as well as some of the countries in West Asia who
are the fountain heads of fundamentalism pass on funds to
politicians in India.
These transactions are clandestine. Some of the national
political parities as well as regional parties had also
been beneficiaries of such handing out of funds by cer-
tain foreign embassies, especially at the time of elec-
tions.
Presently the CIA is in the midst of a serious controver-
sy in US over its alleged role in introducing crack in
the Black ghettos of Los Angeles and elsewhere for rais-
ing money for funding CIA's surrogates in Latin America.
The charge is that cocaine was purchased in large quanti-
ties from some well known drug barons in California and
they were dumped in the predominantly Afro-American slum
areas and thereby indirectly raised a large number of
addicts from that community.
The CIA has denied that accusation, but a commentator in
Washington Post has pointed out:
"What else would it say?.... wasn't the government invol-
ves in some other incredible, and clearly illegal activi-
ties, in an effort to raise money for the Nicaraguan
contras? What's so unthinkable about the suggestion that
they might have used smuggled cocaine, sold through West
Coast gangs, to achieve the same end?"
In India, the hawala channel plays a more active role and
much larger amounts come into the country through this
conduit.
The notorious hawala scam involving the Jains owes its
origin to the arrest of a Kashmiri militant near Jama
Masjid, Delhi, on March 25, 1991.
The lead took the investigators to a student, Shahabud-
ding Gauri, of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and his
interrogation revealed that they had been getting money
to finance terrorists in J&K through certain hawala
dealers.
Acting on the lead, the residences of the Jain brothers
were raided which led to the recovery of the notorious
diary, among other things.
The handouts by the Jains to politicians and officials
may have been in the range of Rs 65 crore but the ramifi-
cations are far reaching and much more than what has been
unravelled so far.
We are yet to hear all about the roles of Moolchand Shah
of Bombay, Mohini Jain of London, and Ameer Bhai who is
still eluding the CBI.
Above all this, the secret funding at the instance of
foreign intelligence agencies, particularly by the ISI of
Pakistan, to the terrorist outfits in J&K and Punjab is
the most serious one.
According to reliable reports, the ISI is pumping well
over. Rs 2 crore a month to the terrorist and subversive
organisations in Kashmir such as the Hizbul Mujahiddin,
the Hurriat, the Muslim Conference etc.
In the Northeast, the ULFA is wallowing in wealth ob-
tained illegally from their terrorist activities.
It was known for quite sometime that the ISI has taken
some of the ULFA stalwarts to Bangkok and elsewhere and
entertained them lavishly.
The chief of the IV Corps recently disclosed that the
documents seized from the ULFA terrorists disclosed that
they had collected about Rs 8 crore.
The ULFA had gone to the extent of hiring mercenaries for
doing their terrorist tasks.
While the terrorist organisations in J&K and the north-
east are being fought by the armed forces and the para-
military forces, the fight has to continue elsewhere too.
These areas are the shadowy underground operations in-
volving hostile elements from foreign countries who pump
in enormous sums of money to fund anti-national elements,
politicians and pseudo and ostensibly religious organisa-
tions.
The danger to the nation from the latter categories is no
less serious than the one faced overground.
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