The unease in sections of the intelligentsia over the spectacular rise of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the run-up to the Delhi elections has intensified with Arvind Kejriwal’s bizarre excuses to not form the Government despite unconditional support from the Congress. Since many persons have had deep reservations over the foreign funding of Kejriwal and others who have taken public positions on several issues, this may be the time to examine if the West is controlling dissent in India with a view to pushing its own agenda and promoting its corporate interests.
As some information regarding the American think tank, Ford Foundation, is already in the public domain, it may be pertinent to ask if certain persons and the causes they espouse draw strength from support by powerful Western agencies. As is well known, ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan was disgraced and professionally ruined because a Western power wanted India to stop work on cryogenics technology. He has recovered his public esteem only in recent weeks, and the full extent of the disgraceful conspiracy is yet to be revealed.
Certain well-connected non-government organisations (NGOs) are richly funded by the Indian Government as also Western agencies; their key officials behave as if they are at par with government and resist coming under the Right to Information Act to evade public accountability. A closer look at West-funded individuals and agencies is warranted on account of some recent developments.
Serious questions were first raised when Maharashtra activist Anna Hazare began a high decibel movement for a Jan Lokpal Bill under the banner of India Against Corruption. Hazare himself has received an award from the Atlanta-based CARE, which is part of the American establishment and often embedded with the military on occupation missions. His associate Kiran Bedi, former IPS officer, received the Rockefeller Foundation funded Magsaysay Award in 1994; and Arvind Kejriwal received a youth award that was funded by the Ford Foundation.
At the time of the Lokpal agitation, Kabir, an NGO run by Arvind Kejriwal and his close associate Manish Sisodia (the newly elected MLA from Patparganj), reportedly received grants totalling $3,97,000 from the Ford Foundation.
Besides Sisodia, between 2007 to 2011, some high profile persons who were recipients of the Foundation’s generosity include Indira Jaising, director of an NGO called Lawyers’ Collective which promotes human rights for marginalised people $12,40,000; Yogendra Yadav, fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (and front ranking leader of the AAP) $3,50,000; Pratap Bhanu Mehta, director, Centre for Policy Research $687,000; and Nandan Nilekani, president NCAER, $2,30,000.
As is well known, Nandan Nilekani persuaded the Government of India to permit him to implement a nationwide biometrics project for the entire population of India, at national expense, without Parliamentary sanction. Much has been written about this project, but it bears reiteration that this highly sensitive data is being maintained by private companies; both Nilekani and the Union Home Ministry have admitted that there are no foolproof safeguards in place to protect the data; the worldwide expose of snooping by US intelligence agencies into the highest offices of even friendly governments has left the Government of India unconcerned.
Subsequent attempts to link the Unique Identity-Aadhaar project with Central subsidies do not explain why sections of the population that are not availing of subsidies were forced into the project and why the Delhi Government made it mandatory for registration of property. Till this day, there is no clear objective behind the project, which continues at public expense, with Nilekani enjoying the rank of a Minister of State. Meanwhile, multiple points have been created where the data can be collected and leaked.
Yogendra Yadav, a CSDS scholar and psephologist, created a huge ruckus when the Human Resources Development Ministry sacked him as an advisor to the University Grants Commission when he joined the fledgling political party, AAP. He called it political vendetta. The moot point, however, is how persons intimately associated with Government and policy making bodies are permitted to avail of foreign funding and to wear multiple hats.
Most interesting are Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Indira Jaising, because they have suddenly taken a public position on the 2G judgment and Justice AK Ganguly at a time and in a manner that is distinctly odd.
In his column in the Indian Express on 12 December 2013, Pratap Bhanu Mehta criticised the Supreme Court judgment on Article 377. He has every right to his opinion, but it raises eyebrows when, amidst a long declamation on liberal values, he suddenly throws a stone at the Supreme Court judgment on the 2G spectrum scandal, and then moves on without any explanation. Mehta writes, “It is a bit graceless to single out individual judges, but then how else do we convey criticism of judgments and not have it get lost in an abstraction called the court? Many had pointed out that the much-feted 2G judgment was legally appalling…”
Readers will recall that Justice AK Ganguly and Justice GS Singhvi had cancelled 122 licences in the 2G scam in February 2012. That judgment is now being attacked at a time when the second judge on the bench, Mr Singhvi, has also just retired.
It is pertinent that from the time of the sensational allegation against Justice Ganguly, many in the legal fraternity have felt that the 2G judgment, in which many Indian and foreign corporates have high stakes, is at the root of his problems. Dr Subramanian Swamy has said as much publicly, and this is the reason why some distinguished persons have come out in defence of the judge.
As the matter is still awaiting resolution, no more need be said. But it is startling that the Lawyer’s Collective director Indira Jaising, who is also Addl. Solicitor General of India, should suddenly access and disclose part of the proceedings of the Supreme Court panel that investigated the allegation made by a law intern against Justice Ganguly. It is unthinkable that she could have got a copy from the Chief Justice of India; but copies were given to Justice Ganguly and the intern. Clearly some kind of shadow-boxing is afoot.
India needs to get serious about the dangers posed to the nation at multiple levels due to the easy access that foreigners and foreign agencies have at top levels of society and government. Only recently, the Union Defence Ministry was shocked to learn that Army Chief General Bikram Singh accepted a US military award, the Legion of Merit, without Government clearance. General Singh was on a visit to America from December 2 to 5; India is planning to purchase M-777 ultra light howitzers and Javelin anti-tank missiles from the United States.
Niticentral.com, 17 December 2013
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/12/17/ford-foundation-managing-dissent-in-india-169241.html