Amnesty International is in Indian news, and it doesn’t look good for them. This Post will try to utilise the opportunity of the evanescent public interest on Amnesty and will try to explore some of its FCRA connections. This Post will not mention about a Mr. Aakar Patel. Thus, if you are addicted to that name, you can stop reading this Post.
While AIIPL is a Private Limited Company registered in Bengaluru, AISAF is a Non-Profit License Company registered in Delhi.
If Amnesty-India is not a FCRA-NGO, where does it get its funds from? What is its relationship to Amnesty International-UK (or equivalents elsewhere)? To answer such questions, one will have to go through the Annual Reports, Financial Statements etc. of Amnesty-India which can be obtained from MCA. However, this requires payment of a nominal fee to MCA which this blogger would like to avoid as it will leave a trace.
Minar Pimple is mentioned as the Senior Director of Global Operations, Amnesty International (AI) on AI’s website.
According to InstaFinancials, Minar Pimple was a Director of Oxfam India (CIN=U74999DL2004NPL131340) during 2004-2010. Oxfam India is a FCRA-NGO (DL/231661035) with enormous interest and disruptive work on the so-called Right To Education among other “Child Rights”. It receives a huge amount of money, particularly from its UK principal, which in turn receives grants from UK Government’s DFID.
Ministry of Corporate Affairs website shows that Ms. Shoba Mathai is also the Director of a Bengaluru company called Oriental Software Private Limited (CIN=U72100KA1985PTC007300) since 1985. The work of this Software company and profiles of its other functionaries can be seen on their website. Apart from leading private organizations, they also have many Government agencies as their clients. They also mention that international NGOs too are their clients. It is quite discomforting to see Government establishments listed there as clients. More can be said, but we shall leave it to the readers to ponder.
It may also be pertinent to check out the list of Directors in this UK Company called IPARTNER India (Company number 05819852) here.
The website of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) states that “BBA activities are run through the registered society, Association for Voluntary Action”. In fact, the Darpan portal of NITIAAYOG too provides BBA’s website for AVA. At the same address as AVA, the following FCRA-NGOs exist: Bal Ashram Trust (DL/231660937), Global March India Foundation (231660984), and Save the Childhood Foundation (DL/231661122).
the Ford Foundation now appears to have tasked a former employee, Amitabh Behar, to create a network of NGOs across India under the “Wada Na Todo” (Don’t Break Promises) slogan. Behar has taken over the well-regarded National Foundation of India (NFI), and according to sources in Delhi, has received over $7 million from Ford, besides significant amounts from the MacArthur and Rockefeller Foundations for expanding his activities into directions that appear to veer into the political, exactly as they did in the case of some other donees of the Ford Foundation, especially in Gujarat, a state which seems to have been on the radar of several organisations during 2002-2013. Such a network would have the capability to launch within weeks “independent and spontaneous” agitations on the lines desired by donor agencies, and can therefore get used whenever there is a disconnect between the wishes of the governments backing such foreign NGOs and the Government of India.
We hope and wish that Government of India eradicates FCRA as well as other routes (company route, BAM routes etc..) by which such Breaking India forces operate.
Has this Post answered every question you had on Amnesty India? No. Has it answered mine? Surely not. I just thought I’ll share whatever that can be collated from public domain here. That is all.
UPDATE ON SEPTEMBER 02, 2016: The DARPAN Portal of Niti Aayog provides the name of a NGO which appears to be related to Amnesty. Operating from Bengaluru, it is called “ Indians for Amnesty International Trust” and its chief functionaries are listed as Ananthapadmanabhan Guruswamy and Shobha Mathai. The common names are interesting to note. A screenshot of that page is given below.
World Vision is in the news. And, it ain’t good. Israel has alleged that the Head of World Vision in Gaza diverted millions of US dollars to Hamas. See for instance, this news article. According to The Guardian, Australia suspended its grants to World Vision’s work in Palestine, soon after this story broke out.
While one should be aware of such happenings elsewhere in the world, we should be concerned about what happens in *our* backyard. Since this blogger has never written about World Vision India (WVI), it is an opportune moment to break the ice. Having said that, this Post is not a comprehensive one on WVI.
World Vision is a “charity” headquartered in USA and having operations in nearly all countries of the world. In its Form-990 World Vision-USA describes itself as: World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization serving children and families globally.
World Vision-USA gets grants from/via US Federal Government as well. An extract from WV’s Form-990 is provided below for that purpose.
World Vision India is a FCRA-NGO with Registration number: TN/75900011. Its FCRA address is: 16, VOC Main Road, Kodambakkam, Chennai-600024. The following Table provides year-wise foreign funding received by WVI. A major contribution to WVI comes from WV-USA.
Even accounting for the increase in exchange rate between USD and INR in the recent past, it is obvious that foreign fund inflows to WVI have risen sharply since 2013. It should be noted that WVI’s operations span a wide range — from child “welfare” to “advocacy”. This is not the time or occassion to belabour on its activities. Bhagwans willing, we shall address that matter at a future time.
The FCRA Wing, Ministry of Home Affairs changed the format of the Annual Returns to be filed by FCRA-NGOs each year. Earlier, it used to be FC6. Nowadays, it is FC4. To figure out what they mean, head to this beautiful Post. These annual returns are available for public view, thankfully without needing that stupid RTI.
There are many things which we do not like in the change from FC6 to FC4. However, there is one good thing about FC4. FC4 asks the FCRA-NGOs to provide a list of all the Utilisation Bank accounts that they hold. Foreign funds are received by a FCRA-NGO in one particular Bank account. For World Vision India, that Bank account is in Chennai (as given in its FC6/FC4 forms). However, since WVI is a behemoth organization, it needs to spend this money wherever it is working in India. Towards this purpose, it holds several Bank accounts all over India. This list is provided in its FC4 form.
World Vision India holds a whopping one hundred and fifty Utilisation Bank Accounts all over India. Since modern India is a non-transparent society and Governments are shy to disclose information and data they possess in public domain and since NGOs are held in high esteem (both by Governments as well as by public at large), we have no way of finding out how World Vision India spends more than Rs. 350 Crore p.a. (foreign funds alone).
However, the geographical spread of these FCRA utilisation Bank accounts can provide us a clue on its spread and extent of operations. The following is a map of such locations (thanks to Google maps and to theXS mapping tool).
Here is the link to the Dynamic map. Play with it!! It is coooool !!
The following is the static map of locations of FCRA Utilization Bank Accounts of World Vision India. Need we say more?
Lost sister in orphanage. Beyond News.
Gullible city Indians (living in India or elsewhere) swallow it all up. I guess such vacuous articles would have gotten plenty of likes, shares, WoWs etc. from the unthinking Left & Right Wings of our Desh.
What is the story? As written in India Today, “Patricia Tavis of New Jersey, USA adopted Yasamma Gedala, born in Rajahmundry, from the Missions to the Nations orphanage in Kakinada on December 12, 1998. She named her Samantha Mari Tavis.” Yasamma’s parents were Gowri and Nagaraju. Yasamma nee Samantha was now searching for her birth sister who too was “left” at the same “orphanage” by their parents.
How terrible the Third World is? Hindoo parents leave their children to fend for themselves in Orphanages, i.e., they “orphan” them even when such kids are not technically orphans. Western savior then raise such poor kids to give them Life, Liberty and Happiness. Yasamma became a Samantha. Cry.
How did Patricia Tavis (or someone like her) come to know about this little “orphanage” in Kakinada when 90% of Indians themselves will be hard placed to point Kakinada on a map?
Enter FCRA, the Conduit for Evangelizing India. Mission to the Nations (MTN) is a FCRA-NGO located in Kannayyakapu Nagar, Kakinada, East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh-533003. Its FCRA Registration number is: AP/10170075. It received the following foreign donations since 2006.
As is the norm, MTN is not registered as a religious organization in FCRA, although all its foreign donors are Christian organizations from across the world. MTN’s Director, Paparao Yeluchuri says “It’s (sic) my privilege to serve Jesus in the coastal city of Kakinada, India”. The webpage also shows a proud Dwyatt Gantt of Children’s Hope International-USA endorsing MTN’s sepoyhood. MTN runs an orphanage, a school (called New Life City of Refuge; see here), helps lepers, the whole shebang of such Godly, oops, secular operations of Born Sinners.
This news story of 2014 mentions that locals in Kakinada staged a demonstration against Paparao Yeluchuri accusing him of selling children to foreigners. They demanded a CBI probe and asked for the restoration of “sold” children to their biological parents. A fair ask, I would say.
RoL NGOs proclaim their work in the name of Jesus Christ. They proclaim that their works are being done to expand the Kingdom of God. Yet, they are social/cultural/educational organizations under FCRA.
Since children are raised as Believers in such “orphanages”, nobody is “converted”. How nice?
FCRA is the lubricated conduit for the profusion of Love into India.