Is IDRF funding Terrorism in India?

Mohamed Tanveer 

 A new phobia has risen among not only India but everyone all over the globe, its terrorophobia. After the malegaun I & II, Hyderabad Makkah masjid, Ajmer dargah, Mumbai serial and Samjauta blasts (the list is big) every India lives amidst of the fear of any possible terrorist activity. None can deny the fact that the terrorist activities or say bomb blast came in to panorama only after the ties of India with Israel got closer. In recent period the Indian investigating agencies has unearthed the fact that hindutva ideological terror wings are behind the terrorist activies in India.

Its clear now that the hindutva forces like Abinav bharat, Hss with the backing of Rastrya Swayam Sewak are behind the terrorism in India. But who's funding this kind of terror plot in India. In the span of a decade the hindutva forces has engulfed the fear of terrorism all over the sub continent.

India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), a Maryland, US based charity organization. IDRF's mission is clear: to support volunteer-based, honest and highly experienced non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in India in serving their populations' critical needs around education, healthcare, and welfare, without regard to religion, caste or creed, as it claims. But reality is quite contrast IDRF is not a secular and non-sectarian organization as it claims to be, but is, on the contrary, a major conduit of funds for Hindutva organizations in India. It works as "The Foreign Exchange of Hate".

Since inception, IDRF's annual funds raised have grown from $15,000 to more than $500,000 annually. IDRF has raised more than $23 million since 1988, and sent grants over $22 million. Thus more than 990 million rupees sponsored by IDRF in Indi, Is this money used for terror plots or hate policies or for constructive schemes?

From documents submitted to the US Federal government in 1989 as part of its application for tax exempt status, it is clear that from its very moment of inception, IDRF's goal was clearly to support the Sangh outfits in India. That IDRF supports Sangh organizations in India is thus not a matter of accident but is instead the very purpose for its existence.

Since its inception, IDRF's links with Sangh organizations in India have grown dramatically. Of the organizations in India that it lists as "sister organizations", an overwhelming number are clearly part of the Sangh's family of organizations.IDRF's leadership in the US has well-established links with the Hindutva movement both in India and the US. Officials of IDRF in India are also openly part of the Sangh.Hindutva organizations in the US do extensive publicity and fundraising for the IDRF. They openly acknowledge IDRF as a part of the Sangh outfit.

Adequate documentation also exists to show that the IDRF funds organizations in at least three states in India that are directly involved in large scale violence against Muslim and Christian minorities. This reports documents the case of an the IDRF beneficiary, the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Gujarat and its extensive involvement in anti-Christian violence between 1998-2000 including the physical destruction of Christian institutions, schools, churches, colleges, and cemeteries and forcible conversions to Hinduism.

Secondary documentation also exists to show that the same Hindutva organizations involved in the anti-Christian violence of 1998-2000 were involved in the Gujarat carnage of 2002 where, by most reliable accounts, more than 2000 people, mostly Muslims, were massacred
The most visible and active organizations of the Sangh Parivar are represented below in a necessarily incomplete organizational chart of the Parivar. Each of these organizations has an equivalent "sister" organization in the US, which is shown in brackets in the chart below.

The central organizations of the Sangh Parivar are:
• its parliamentary wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian Peoples Party),
• its cultural/political mobilization wing, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP - World Hindu Council),
• its paramilitary wing, the Bajrang Dal, and
• its service wing, the Seva Vibhag.
Each of these has a US equivalent -
• the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) mirrors the RSS with the Friends of India Society (FISI) functioning as its public arm,
• the Overseas Friends of the BJP runs the affairs of the BJP in the US,
• the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America does the same for the VHP, and
• the IDRF looks after the Seva Vibhag's activities in the US.

Further, Sewa International is the Seva Vibhag's coordination body for all international funds and service programs. In India, the Seva Vibhag operates through hundreds of single purpose organizations spread across the country.

Institutional Links: the IDRF as a U.S. branch of the Sangh outfit

The institutional links between the Sangh and the IDRF are extremely well documented. There are two levels at which these links can be examined:

a.) through documents submitted by IDRF to various US Federal and State Government agencies.

b.) through documents published by IDRF as part of its public relations and advertising machinery.

The most important of the documents submitted by the IDRF to the Internal Revenue Service of the United States is its application for a tax exempt certificate. Form 1023, duly filled by the IDRF executives when it was created in 1989, identifies nine organizations as a representative sample of the types of organizations the IDRF has been set up to support in India.

• Vikas Bharati (Bihar)
• Swami Vivekananda Rural Development Society (Tamil Nadu)
• Sewa Bharati (Delhi)
• Jana Seva Vidya Kendra (Karnataka)
• Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram(Madhya Pradesh) 
• Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (Gujarat)
• Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (Nagar Haveli)
• Girivasi Vanvasi Sewa Prakalp (Uttar Pradesh)
• G. Deshpande Vanvasi Vastigrah (Maharashtra)

All nine are clearly marked Sangh organizations. For instance,

The Vikas Bharati stream, which originated in the fountainhead called Sangh, has been quietly flowing towards the ocean called society, gathering many additional streams on the way. Similarly, the Swami Vivekananda Rural Development Society (SVRDS) is a sister organization of the VHP in Tamil Nadu. While the stated goal of SVRDS is rural development and education of tribals, considerable documentation exists to show its emphasis on tribals learning practices that surround Hindu religious festivals.

Of these various service organizations, Sewa Bharati is, in India, the most commonly RSS identified service organization. Sewa International's website has extensive documentation of Sewa Bharati, and its religious/theological actions rather than service/developmental work.

After Sewa-karya [service] started, a temple has come into being. Daily pooja [prayer service] takes place in the temple with Arati. Because of this, the feeling of Hindutwa in our households has been awakened. All this is the contribution of Sewa Bharati.

The above three examples should suffice for now to point us towards an important conclusion: the nine organizations that the IDRF identifies as sample organizations that it will support in Form 1023, are all clearly marked Sangh operations. This illustrates the point that from its very moment of inception, the IDRF's goal was clearly to support the Sangh Parivar in India. That the IDRF supports Sangh organizations is thus not a matter of accident but is instead definitional of its very design.

o Bhishma Agnihotri, a well-known RSS ideologue and a HSS Sanghchalak (Supremo), is one of the founders the IDRF. HSS is RSS's equivalent organization in the US and UK.

o Two of the IDRF's other founders, Jatinder Kumar and Ram Gehani, are office bearers of FISI. Mr. Gehani is also associated with the OFBJP. FISI is the public relations arm of the HSS. OFBPJ is the overseas arm of the BJP.

o Vinod Prakash is one of the founders of the IDRF and also its President since its inception. The HSS Newsletter, Sangh Sandesh, for January 2001 announces the opening of a tribal boys hostel by Sewa Bharati, MP named after ‘Sarla Vinod Prakash,' the wife of Vinod Prakash. Both Sarla and Vinod Prakash are listed as founders of the IDRF. Members of the Prakash family were present at the inauguration and shared the stage with Mr. Ashok Singhal, the international President of VHP, who has currently been in the news for voicing his "appreciation" of the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat and the "cleansing" of several Gujarati villages of their Muslim residents.

Of the 6 Zonal Vice Presidents listed on IDRF's website, four are HSS volunteers, and one of them is on the National Governing Council of the VHP of America. The General Secretary of the IDRF, Shyam Gokalgandhi, is also responsible for running the Balvihar of the HSS in the San Fransisco Bay Area.

Shyam Parande, the India Advisor of IDRF, is listed in an article from The Observer, as ‘the organizer of Sangh activities abroad.' Vijay Mallampati, India Coordinator for IDRF, is also actively involved with the Sangh Parivar, and acted as the Mukhya Shikshak (Chief Instructor) at one of the HSS camps in the US.

Swami Ashim Anand (variously called Swami Aseemanand or Asheemanand)or what ever you call is a famous holy men for unholy tasks of bomb blast in India . And after his confession its clear and none can doubth on this fact he is one of the key man bwhind the terrorist activities in India. For the two years (1998, 1999) that he was active in the Dangs district in Gujarat, not only did the Swami conduct forcible re-conversions of tribals to Hinduism, he also spread terror amongst the local Christians by organizing large-scale, aggressively militant Hindu rallies on Christmas eve and Good Friday in tribal villages with significant Christian populations.

• Swami Ashim Anand is documented by Sangh activists as part of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Gujarat. Ashwin Modi, the President of the Surat unit of the Bajrang Dal, identifies the Swami as part of the "Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, an organization affiliated to the VHP."

• Further documentation for the same comes via a story in Indian Express, a mainstream newspaper in India, which identifies Swami Ashim Anand as "the national president" of the Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad and reports the Swami's recent presence in the Dangs as follows:

After coming to Waghai a couple of years ago, the Swami had spearheaded the formation of Bajrang Dal units in every village. The recent violence against the Christian community was reportedly led by activists groomed by the Swami.

• More over his participation in bomb blast activities and role as bond between different terror outfit with similar ideology is proven.

The Link to the IDRF

The linking of Swami Ashim Anand with the Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad and his mandate as the creation of the Bajrang Dal units in the tribal villages of Gujarat, provides a critcal link to the IDRF. Chetan Gandhi, one of the Vice Presidents of IDRF, writes in a report on his visit to Gujarat and to the ashram at Waghai as follows:
Swami Ashimanandji is in charge of the Ashram's activities in this district... though is as some (sic) only before 18 months he is well known as respected by the community. 
Further, it is not difficult to explain the presence of an IDRF vice president in Gujarat and his reporting on the activities of the Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad in Waghai. The Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad is a direct beneficiary of the IDRF. It is listed under the title "IDRF Supported Projects in Gujarat."

Thus its clear that fund are passed to terrorist like Aseemanand from IRDF.

The following table shows the break-up by ideology of the organizations directly designated by the IDRF.

Sangh       $2,684,915         82.4%

Religious      $264,660          8.1%
Secular           $70,620         2.2%
Unknown       $239,785         7.4%

Total            $3,259,980    100.0%

Is IRDF sponsoring terrorism in India?

Is sang outfit using the funds from IRDF for riots, violence, militant training and terror activities like bomb blast?

Is the Anti terrorist Squad aware of the real situation?