Author: Prashanth Lakhihal
Publication: India Tribune
Date:
URL: http://www.indiatribune.com/update.html#A5
Hindutva forces in the US are outraged
over a biting report, which alleged that IDRF - a major social and economic
volunteer organization committed to India's development - is allegedly
funneling money to fan communal hatred. But they are undecided over what
course of action they should take against the authors of the report. Besides
being contemptuous about the report released in Mumbai last week, friends
and well wishers of the 25-year-old India Development and Relief Fund have
not yet made any firm plans about whether they intend to take legal action.
Responding to queries from his correspondent,
Vinod Prakash, founder-president of IDRF, flatly denied all the allegations
made by the report prepared by 11 NRIs led by New York-based professor
Biju Mathews of Ryders University. "IDRF dismisses the allegations made
by the groups as pure concoction, untruthful and self-contradicting," said
Prakash, defending the IDRF activities.
Offering a point-by-point rebuttal,
Prakash questioned the motives, ideological predilections and credibility
of the authors and the organization that they represent.
The report released under wide media
glare had alleged that IDRF's funds for charity in India are being diverted
to Sangh Parivar affiliates like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh for carrying out their "hate campaign" against minorities.
"We are not yet ready intellectually
to take on these Islamic forces or those sympathetic to Islam," admitted
Hindutva activist Narayan Kataria, founder- president of India America
Intellectual Forum.
The IDRF calls the allegations leveled
in the 91-page report as pure humbug. The report is "merely a string of
allegations, manipulated skillfully by piecing together information available
on the IDRF Web site," the IDRF statement said.
Further, it questioned the credibility,
motives and the political agenda of these "splintered and virtually unknown
groups" that have launched the "hate campaign" against IDRF.
Kataria, who has mobilized funds
for IDRF on many occasions, says the report is false. It is merely to "denigrate,"
defame and demonize Hindu society. If the report is false and defamatory,
what do IDRF and its friends plan to do? IDRF president Prakash is not
sure if legal course will be taken as "courts of law are always expensive
to bear," and a lawyer has not been consulted.
A veteran observer of the Indian
American community noted that left liberals have launched a conspiracy
the Hindutva forces in America. The earliest allegations were made by Silicon
Valley-based venture capitalist Kanwal Rekhi in his Wall Street Journal
article against the donations of wealthy Indian Americans to Hindutva forces.
He mentioned IDRF as one of the organizations funding communal violence.
Outlook magazine picked it up in its July 22 issue.
The Federation of Indian American
Christian Organizations of Northern America (FIACONA) used these media
articles and invigorated their anti-Hindu campaign. Later, Bob Hathaway,
a former CIA agent who works for the Woodrow Wilson Center, submitted these
allegations to the Religious Freedom Committee hearings in Washington D.C.
Mira Kamdar expressed similar views in her World Policy Review report.
Narayan D. Keshavan, an award winning
former Washington Times journalist, says, "I have been waiting for a long
time for a report detailing who and how much money is flowing into India
from various Christian organizations and churches. I am also waiting for
a report on how much money has flown from Middle Eastern organizations
and governments for proselytizing purposes. Those are only reports that
count because it is the money from these organizations that is doing real,
deadly harm to India and its unity. The Mathew report is utter gibberish
and is of no importance."
For the last 25 years, nobody has
raised a brow against IDRF, which has received matching donations from
major American corporations like Cisco and Microsystems and global institutions
like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, sources said.
However, in the last couple of months,
especially after 9/11 terrorist attacks, Islamic fundamentalists and their
sympathizers have been raising fingers against IDRF.
Dr. Mukund Mody, founder and president
of the Overseas Friends of BJP, said the IDRF has come under scrutiny after
the terrorist attacks as the Islamic fundamentalists plan to divert the
attention from Muslim charities funding international Islamic terrorism.
"IDRF is a very legitimate organization and has donated its collections
without deducting any overhead costs," he added.
IDRF's top official Prakash who
is a retired World Bank economist explains that IDRF donations to India-based
organizations are governed by the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act
in India. It had to maintain separate bank accounts and the money cannot
be diverted from earmarked projects.
"We haven't violated any US or Indian
laws. We are open to IRS scrutiny," he declared.
The FIACONA has demanded that the
US Congress should probe into this matter and also asked the IRS to blacklist
the IDRF and withdraw its tax exempt status.
Prakash maintained that the IDRF
contributes to only tax-exempt registered organization in India on a need
only policy. "We set the condition - no sectarianism, no discrimination.
We follow need-only policy," he asserted.
Nor does the IDRF seek contributions
from top US businesses as alleged in the report but collections are made
only from individuals, primarily from NRIs, who may be working anywhere,
Prakash said.
