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U.S. corporates funding hate?

By Anjali Mody

NEW DELHI NOV. 20. Global software major, Cisco Systems donated $ 70,000 in just one year to a U.S.-based Sangh Parivar fund-raising outfit, the Indian Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), which has channelled millions of dollars to Sangh Parivar organisations, like the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, linked with anti-minority violence in many States.

Cisco's contribution, according to tax records, was as much as five per cent of IDRF's total cash corpus in 1999. If Cisco employee contributions for that year are added, the total is $1,33,000 or a little under 10 per cent. Prof Biju Mathew, Professor of Information Systems at Rider University in the U.S., who is part of the `Campaign to Stop Funding Hate' said ``many large U.S. corporations such as Cisco, Sun Computers, Oracle and Hewlett Packard, match their employees' contributions to US-based non-profit organisations. Unsuspecting corporations end up giving large amounts of money as `matching funds' to IDRF as NRI employees of these firms donate to the IDRF''.

IDRF, which is a registered tax-exempt charity in the U.S., claims to be a non-sectarian organisation raising funds for `development' and `relief' work in India. As a result, it is also listed on `Network of Good', a charity portal set-up by AOL-Time Warner and Cisco, directing funds to good causes.

However, a report `Foreign Exchange of Hate' released by the Campaign at a press conference here, says that far from being `secular', IDRF has been ``funding sectarian groups in India from its inception'' and has been raising funds to support Sangh activities from U.S. corporations and NRIs there.

To prove its case, the report has systematically set out the links between IDRF and the Sangh Parivar. Quoting U.S. tax department documents, the report said that even when applying for tax-exempt charitable status from the U.S. government in 1989, IDRF listed nine organisations of the type it planned to support, including Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat) and Sewa Bharati, all of which are linked to the RSS.

The report also shows the links between the people behind IDRF and the Sangh Parivar: one of its founding members was Bhishma Agnihotri, the BJP-appointed `Ambassador at Large'.

Two other founding members are Jatinder Kumar and Ram Gehani, who are both connected with the RSS' international arm, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) and Overseas Friends of the BJP, which has hosted the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister on their visits to the U.S. Other active office-bearers are linked with the HSS and at least one with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (America).

On the question of funding, the report reveals that 83 per cent of funds go to Sangh Parivar organisations (the single biggest beneficiaries are the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams and Sewa Bharati), eight per cent to Hindu or Jain religious bodies, two per cent to identifiably secular organisations, and 7 per cent to those whose ideological provenance is unknown.

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