THE CAMPAIGN TO STOP FUNDING HATE
Is US Corporate Philanthropy Funding Hate Groups In India?
The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate Announces Project Saffron Dollar
Are the charity dollars generously provided by American companies,
including some of our leading corporate citizens of the high
technology world, being used to fund violent, sectarian groups in
India? The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (SFH) announces the launch
of Project Saffron Dollar to bring an end to the electronic
collection and transfer of funds from the US to organizations that
spread sectarian hatred in India.
The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (SFH) is a coalition of people --
professionals, students, workers, artists and intellectuals -- who
share a common concern that sectarian hatreds in India are being
fueled by money flowing from the United States. SFH is committed to
an India that is open, tolerant and democratic. As the first step,
SFH is determined to turn off the money flow from the United States
to Hindutva hate groups responsible for recurring anti-minority
violence in India.
IDRF: THE SANGH'S FUNDING BRANCH IN THE USA
Project Saffron Dollar aims to put an end to the collection of
hundreds of thousands of dollars by the most 'respectable' of the US
based funding arms of the violent and sectarian Hindutva movement --
the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF). In its communications
and on its website, the IDRF claims to be a non-sectarian,
non-political charity that funds development and relief work in
India. However, a report -- A Foreign Exchange of Hate --
co-published today by the South Asia Citizens Web (SACW) based in
France, and Sabrang Communications, Bombay, India, documents in rich
detail the fundamental connections between the IDRF and the Sangh
Parivar (or simply the Sangh, the name commonly used for the network
of RSS-linked organizations that collectively define the Hindutva
movement). Amongst other documents, the SACW/Sabrang report examines
a tax document filed by IDRF (at its inception in 1989) with the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the US Federal Government. The
report offers the following:
[F]orm 1023, duly filled by IDRF executives when it was created in
1989, identifies nine organizations as a representative sample of the
types of organizations IDRF has been set up to support in IndiaŠ All
nine are clearly marked Sangh organizations.
The report concludes that the fact of money being sent to
organizations linked to the RSS is not a 'mere' incidental to IDRF's
larger operations, but rather that raising funds for the Sangh
Parivar is, and continues to be, the primary reason for the existence
of IDRF in the US.
It is critical to underscore that IDRF's claim to being non-sectarian
is entirely misleading. The SACW/Sabrang report indicates that a
whopping 82% of the funds disbursed at the discretion of IDRF go to
Sangh organizations. Of the remaining, the bulk goes to sectarian
Hindu charities that may or may not have a direct Sangh affiliation.
Less than five percent of their funds go to agencies that do not have
a distinct Hindu-religious identification. Examining the IDRF fund
disbursement from a 'activity-funded' viewpoint, the SACW/Sabrang
report documents that nearly 70% of the monies are used for
"hinduization/tribal/education" work, largely with a view of
spreading Hindutva ideology amongst Adivasi (tribal) communities.
Less than 20% of the total sent by IDRF is used in what are commonly
understood as 'development and relief' activities. However, the
report also concludes that "the 15% funds that the IDRF disbursed for
"relief" must also be seen as sectarian funds" because of the
sectarian basis of how relief work is carried out by the
organizations that IDRF funds.
DOLLARS OF DECEPTION: IDRF FUND RAISING TECHNIQUES
A substantial proportion of IDRF's fund-raising is done through
electronic means:
* money transfer portals such as PayPal;
* company foundations and their electronic portals such as Cisco Foundation;
* other charity portals such as Givingstation.org; and
* credit card commissions through a NSC/MBNA Bank issued IDRF Master Card.
SFH research indicates that in excess of half a million dollars may
be going every year into the hate-lined coffers of IDRF through such
transfers. As of 10AM PST (USA), November 19 2002, petitions seeking
an immediate cessation of the transfer of funds to IDRF have been
dispatched along with comprehensive back-up documentation, including
A Foreign Exchange of Hate report, to ten of the leading
corporations, portals and money exchange facilities. The SFH petition
urges these corporations to immediately disallow IDRF from using
their facilities for direct or indirect fund-raising.
Many large US corporations such as CISCO, Sun, Oracle, HP and AOL
Time Warner match employee contributions to US based non profits.
"Annual Giving" programs normally happen once a year in late Fall --
timed to occur between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Unsuspecting
corporations end up giving large amounts of money as matching funds
to IDRF as employees of these firms direct funds to IDRF. For
instance, in fiscal 1999, Cisco Foundation gave almost $70,000 to
IDRF -- placing IDRF among the top 5 of Cisco grantees. In
comparison, a well-regarded mainstream institution like the Nobel
Peace Prize winning Doctors Without Borders received only $2,560.
Also, other Indian-American development organizations such as Asha
($1,417), CRY-Child Relief and You ($4,427) or the Maharashtra
Foundation ($2,000) all fared much worse than IDRF. Clearly, at least
among Cisco employees, the IDRF has come to occupy much of the giving
space. When you add Cisco's matching grants to the original amounts
given by its employees, a total of at least $133,000 went through
Cisco to IDRF in 1999-2000 -- this is more than 5% of IDRF's total
cash collections for the same time period.
The dynamics of IDRF's corporate funding strategy are simple. As
professional Indian migration to the US has boomed over the last
decade, especially in the software sector, groups of Sangh
operatives, in each of the large high-tech firms with liberal giving
policies, have worked to put IDRF on the corporations' list of
grantees. The swayamsevaks (Sangh 'volunteers') within these
corporations then push IDRF as the 'best' and the 'only' way to
provide funding for 'development & relief' work in India, thus
causing not only other unsuspecting employees, but also the
corporation itself to fund the Sangh in India. Such activities of
Sangh operatives, within firms such as Cisco, constitute a clear
effort to mislead the corporation into funding organizations that
spread sectarian hate: explicitly in contravention of company policy.
For instance, a criterion for eligibility for donations that Cisco
outlines is that the "organization/project being funded must have a
nonreligious primary purpose"; and, equally explicit, is the
criterion for an ineligible organization: "organizations whose
primary mission is to promote or serve one culture, race, or
religion.Š" Clearly IDRF falls outside of the purview of eligibility
because of its Sangh connection and is also marked clearly as
ineligible because of its single minded focus on Hindus and the
creation of a Hindu Rashtra (a vision of an exclusivist Hindu
Supremacist nation).
The case of Charity portals such as Giving Station or Donation Depot
is similar. Many US corporations use one or other of these donation
portals to encourage annual giving by their employees. For instance,
Hewlett Packard, the California based computer and peripherals giant,
manages its annual giving plans through Giving Station.
IDRF has also adopted an older Hindutva strategy. Between 1993 and
1995 the VHP of America had signed up with AT&T in its Associations
Rewards Program, wherein a fixed percentage of any subscribers total
telephone bill could be directed to a non profit of his/her choice,
provided the non profit was registered with AT&T in its Association
Rewards Program. Under consistent pressure from people appalled by
this misuse of charitable giving, AT&T withdrew all support to VHP of
America. IDRF has reproduced exactly the same method for funds
collection, this time through a credit card issued by MBNA bank as
part of a program managed by the National Scrip Center-an
organization founded primarily to simplify fund-raising by schools.
The operation of this scheme is similar to what the VHP-A had tried
with the AT&T Rewards program-from one to fifteen percent of all
transactions conducted on an MBNA-IDRF credit card goes to IDRF.
What is perhaps morally more reprehensible than individuals directing
money to IDRF knowing that most or all of it will be used for Sangh
activities, is the subterfuge involved in misusing the generosity of
well meaning individuals and organizations for the securing of hate
money. Such deception does great harm to the Indo-American community
by taking advantage of people (and corporations) who care, people who
give money in the belief that they are helping non sectarian relief
and development work in India.
A CALL TO BE VIGILANT
The diversity of the funds collection strategies employed by IDRF in
the small sample outlined above indicates that it is very likely that
there are many more such tactics employed by the Sangh that have yet
to be uncovered. SFH is committed to following the last dollar.
Although it is clear that a large amount of money does go from the US
to fund Sangh operations in India -- what the exact amount is, is
still an open question. The SACW/Sabrang report clearly locates
"development" and "seva" work as the most potent Sangh cover in its
spreading the ideology of hate. SFH sees its role as not just a
campaign to stop such relatively 'over-ground' funding as done by
IDRF, but also to promote an awareness of how even funds that are
given to temples and cultural organizations may be ending up in the
hands of the Sangh and similar organizations.
A decade ago, people who funded development work in India could do so
without being too vigilant on the specific usage of these funds. But
in the wake of the growing levels of sectarian violence across the
world, we all need to heighten the level of scrutiny regarding the
funds being transferred to organizations overseas-funds ostensibly
collected for 'development & relief' work but being used to foment
hatreds and spread violence.
Corporations also have a responsibility in ensuring that their funds
are not misused by agencies like IDRF. By inadvertently promoting
such groups, corporations end up not only supporting violence in
India but also importing the divisions and hatreds of Indian society
into the Indo-American community and promoting extremism on American
soil.
For SFH our guiding light is well expressed by the apostle of peace,
Mahatma Gandhi, who when told that the RSS had done some excellent
relief work in the wake of the 1946 communal riots, answered, "But
don't forget, even so had Hitler's Nazis and the Fascists under
Mussolini." He saw right through this façade of seva and
characterized the RSS as a 'communal body with a totalitarian
outlook.' He paid for this with his life. Our task is to ensure that
his message of peace, love and tolerance does not die in India.
© 2002 THE CAMPAIGN TO STOP FUNDING HATE.
<http://www.stopfundinghate.org/>
--
Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus:
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>
