Ahmedabad, 3 April, 2011 Something that could be SEWA's real problem with Modi govt SEWA's Reema Nanavaty with Hilary Clinton Chennai based English daily The Hindu published one of the US diplomatic cables via Wikileaks yesterday. The Hindu's Hasan Suroor titled a story based on this cable as ‘Gujarat tried to use SEWA for communal propaganda.' Leading English news channel Times Now also highlighted this story with the title ‘Latest cable exposes Modi using NGO‘.
Both ‘The Hindu' and ‘Times Now' choose to pick up couple of paragraphs of cable in which then US Consul General at Mumbai Michael S Owen narrated what SEWA's Reemaben Nanavati told him. The paras are presented below: "The general secretary of SEWA, a large and well-respected union and self-help organization for poor women, claimed that the GOG was hoping to use the group's reach and extensive membership as a conduit to disseminate communal ideologies. SEWA was resisting fiercely, the CG was told, and feeling the wrath of the GOG as a result. The local press expressed some interest in the USG decision to revoke the visa of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, but the CG's other interlocutors hardly broached the issue." "Reemaben Nanawati, SEWA General Secretary, told the CG that any communal harmony projected by political leaders was only superficial. The GOG was trying to project normality, but politically the government was using communal animosities to ""divide and rule"" the state's many communal, caste and tribal groups. The state government was obstructing the activities of SEWA in the remote area of Kutchch in northwestern Gujarat, Nanawati said. The GOG was withholding grants for state projects being implemented by SEWA in the region, she said, ostensibly over financial irregularities. In reality, the GOG was interested in using SEWA's reach and vast membership as a conduit for its communal ideologies, Nanawati claimed. SEWA was resisting fiercely, since communal harmony among its members was an important factor for its success, she said. The resistance was making the GOG more vindictive and causing it to step up its pressure on the organization, she added. Due to lack of funds over 12,000 extremely poor SEWA members have not received wages for over five months, Nanawati claimed." *Now here is our attempt to find truth into Nanawati's claims as narrated by Owen. Nanavati's talk about ‘Government of Gujarat(GOG) withholding grants for state projects being implemented by SEWA' was in reference to Jeevika project. If Mr. Hasan Surroor of The Hindu, and those sitting in Times Now who prominently highlighted this story are truth seeking journalists, then they should seriously give a look to the government of Gujarat documents presented below.* As per the cable, Nanawati told the Consul General that Government of Gujarat wanted to use SEWA's reach and vast membership for communal ideologies which SEWA resisted and therefore Gujarat government was behaving in vindictive fashion. She also complained about lack of funds. Following note prepared by then Chief Secretary Sudhir Mankad would confirm that for what reason Jeevika project didn't continue with SEWA. Read full report & Know the Truth <http://deshgujarat.com/2011/04/03/something-on-what-was-sewas-real-trouble-with-modi-government/comment-page-1/#comment-57891> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Skorydov MyTaxAssistant Member Group" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/skorydovmytaxassistant?hl=en.
