The dark side of charity

Lord Patel wrote a cheque for the earthquake victims but was horrified when he found out that his money was actually going to the RSS. Charity is the best revenue stream for the Hindu right.

DIONNE BUNSHA

Lord Adam Patel was one of the many overseas Indians moved by the tragedy of the Kutch earthquake in 2001. A Labour Party MP in the UK, Lord Patel, along with other public figures in the Indian diaspora, used their clout to help gather funds to send back home. He was a patron of Sewa International’s Earthquake Relief Fund. But soon, Lord Patel was jolted.

He found out that Sewa International’s mission was not purely ‘sewa’ (service). The money was being given to RSS-affiliated organisations that propagate hatred against Muslims and Christians. The Sangh Parivar was involved in the communal violence that crippled Gujarat in 2002. Realising their links, Lord Patel resigned as a patron of Sewa International (SI).

“I very much regret ever having been part of this racist organisation… Sewa International is a front for militant Hindu organisations...I am sure a lot of the donors don’t realise the money is being sent to help terror groups like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),” he said in an interview with a UK newspaper. (Sunday Mercury, 11 August 2002)

Recently, a British group called Awaaz exposed the RSS’s charitable façade. It published a report which traces how, in the guise of earthquake relief, millions of pounds raised by Sewa International have gone to RSS fronts. “In Bad Faith: British Charity and Hindu Extremism” found that all the two million pounds raised for quake reconstruction and rehabilitation was given to Sewa Bharati, an RSS affiliate. The report provides insights into how Hindutva groups operate at the international level through different front organisations and charities.

“Sewa Bharati’s activities around both the Gujarat Earthquake and the Orissa cyclone 1999 demonstrate a pattern in which a natural, human tragedy is used to enable the dramatic expansion of RSS institutions through the use of overseas funds,” said the report. In 2002, similar report - “A Foreign Exchange of Hate”- exposed the how an RSS front charity in the US called the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) was funding Sangh Parivar activities in India.

Earthquake survivors in a makeshift camp at Sukhpar, about 10 km from Bhuj, Gujarat, on January 30, 2001. A British group has found that £2 million raised for quake reconstruction and rehabilitation were given to Sewa Bharati, an RSS affiliate.Photo: Kamal Kishore/REUTERS
While appealing for funds, Sewa International did not disclose its associations with the Hindu Swamsevak Sangh (HSS), the RSS’s UK branch with Sewa Bharati, an RSS affiliate. The Madhya Pradesh government because of alleged attacks on Christians banned Sewa Bharati. “Sewa International funded Sewa Bharati for rebuilding work, but it was the RSS that conducted ceremonies of the start of rebuilding work or handed over the completed villages to residents,” the report said.

Sewa Bharati started RSS shakhas during the rehabilitation of Badanpur village. Reports allege that the RSS was distributing relief selectively to higher caste victims and neglecting Dalits and Muslims. The RSS was also organising training cells (shakhas) in relief camps. At Adhoi village, VHP preachers gave lectures every night on the need to be vigilant against Christians and Muslims. RSS volunteers allegedly threatened other relief workers to leave Kutch. They accused them of receiving foreign funds to convert people to Christianity.

Almost a quarter of SI’s earthquake relief funds went to RSS schools. The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) criticised the teaching material in these schools for being “blatantly communal”.

While confirming that all its earthquake relief funds went to Sewa Bharati and that it is a part of HSS, Sewa International refuted accusations that it is funding hate campaigns in India. “Sewa International is a non-religious, non-political and non-sectarian organisation, which believes in equality. At all times, Sewa International encourages social integration and not social division,” said Shantibhai Mistry, SI representative, in a letter to the newspaper that published Lord Adam’s interview.

“The view expressed in the newspaper, in which Lord Adam implies that Sewa International is a front for militant activity, which incites racial hatred, is both outrageous and offending. Sewa International has always openly condemned violence, terrorism and racial discrimination in the past and will continue to do so in the future,” said Mistry.

He maintained that the dealings of Sewa International were transparent. “Many individuals such as the Lord Mayor of Coventry and the former Mayor of Derby together with several Labour MP's and representatives from the media have visited the earthquake-affected areas of Gujarat and have personally approved, endorsed and commended the rehabilitation work carried out by Sewa,” he said. Refuting allegations, Sewa International said it encourages donors to visit the projects that their money has funded and provides assistance to those who wish to do so.
A street, with the rubble of a fallen house, in Bhuj on January 28, 2001.Photo: Pawel Kopczynski/ REUTERS
Besides earthquake relief, many questions have also been raised about Sewa International’s other projects. Most of the 260,000 pounds raised by Sewa International UK for Orissa cyclone relief after 1999 went to a key front of the RSS, the UBSS. “The HSS UK said the funds would be channelled through RSS volunteers. It also said it funds organisations that gets their workforce from the RSS,” said the Awaaz report.

Lord Adam and others in the UK are appealing to the UK government to get their status as a charity revoked. In India, such funding is a violation of FCRA regulations since the money is being used to fund political ends under different guises.

In the US, a large part of the IDRF’s fund raising is through electronic means such as money transfer portals, charity portals or company foundation portals such as the Cisco Foundation. Many large corporations match employee donations to charities and land up giving a lot to the IDRF. From 1993-95, the VHP of America had signed up with AT&T for a program in which a fixed percentage of any subscribers total telephone bill could be directed to a non-profit organisation of his/her choice if the organisation was registered under the AT&T program. But AT&T withdrew support for the VHP of America after it was under pressure from people who were appalled by the VHP’s misuse of charity.

The Awaaz report is an eye-opener for many who are misled by charities and donate without knowing what their money is being used for and by whom. Charity is not always as harmless and benevolent as it sometimes seems.

Frontline, April 10 - 23, 2004 Also available here