Ahmedabad, 14 June 2014

NGO registered as ‘IDEAL'(we bet you haven’t heard about it) functioning in Ahmedabad, Gujarat received whopping Rs.8.07 crore foreign fund in year 2012-13. It was 2.5 time more than the foreign fund it received in previous year! Of this Rs. 5,29,11,725 were received from American capital Washington D.C. The website of the NGO doesn’t provide details of spending of funds.

By Japan K Pathak

Ahmedabad, DeshGujarat

With official documents in hand, in this series I am trying to narrate the details of crorepati non-government organizations functioning in Gujarat – author

Jan Vikas is Ahmedabad based foreign funded NGO. According to ‘Jan Vikas Organogram – the Amoeba’ graph presented in earlier version of Jan Vikas’s website, number of Gujarat based NGOs are part of the Jan Vikas network. Many of the NGOs exchange funds internally. The list includes:Kutch Navnirman Abhiyan, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, Sahjivan , Econet, HID Forum, Manav Garima, Centre for Social Justice, Indian Institute of Para Legal, Dalit Foundation, National Youth Foundation, Drishti, Paryavaran Mitra(project of Jan Vikas), Dalit Shakti Kendra, Youth Resource Centre(project of Jan Vikas), Udaan(project of Jan Vikas) etc.

In this article we discuss the funds received by the Institute For Development Education and Learning (IDEAL) – whose public identity is ‘Centre for Social Justice(CSJ)’.

Registered address of IDEAL/CSJ is Royal Chinmay, same building where Jan Vikas and Dalit Foundation are also registered.

In earlier article we discussed IDEAL’s foreign funding for the year 2011-12. In this piece we are discussing the latest figures of donations during year 2012-13 available to us.

As per the official documents with us, Institute for Development Education and Learning (IDEAL) received whopping Rs. 8,07,93,817.57 foreign donation in year 2012-13. IDEAL is officially declared as NGO working for ‘educational’ initiatives. According to the documents, almost all fund received in 2012-13 was for providing “free legal aid/running legal aid centre.”

Interesting fact is that fund worth Rs. 5,29,11,725 (nearly 5.30 crore) was received from American capital Washington DC.

Official records show that major part of American fund was received from one ‘Creative Associates International Inc(CAI)’ headquartered in Washington DC.

According to online sources like this CAI received contract funding worth $153.4 million in fiscal 2012.

As per this link(not much authentic, but a serious indication) Creative Associates International is subsidized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with more than billion dollars a year to carry out subversive operations internationally. Read this.

As per this link The U.S. Agency for International Development(USAID) was obligated USAID contract funding worth $153.4 million in fiscal 2012. https://www.devex.com/news/top-usaid-contract-awardees-a-primer-81198

If you search ‘Creative Associates International Inc’ in google, you come across some articles suggesting how this agency is known as “obscure company pertaining to the CIA(Central Intelligence Agency of America)”.

One Craig Davis who was working in Pakistan for Creative Associates Inc faced allegations that he was a Blackwater representative. He left the country in 2009 after he was the subject of accusations. Creative Associates has faced similar accusations in Cuba too. These details are based on link. Many more links are available particularly leading to Pakistani news media. Read this to have some idea.

Coming back to IDEAL, America based Ford Foundation donated Rs. 27,30,342 to IDEAL in one year.

Out of total over Rs. 8.59 crore received by IDEAL in one year, over Rs. 6.17 crore came from America itself. Germany was the second highest foreign donor with over Rs. 66.60 lakh donation. German organization Misereor donated Rs. 6,660257.4 in one year to IDEAL.

Some foreign fund has been routed through local NGOs like Econet(Maharashtra), Action Aid(Delhi), and JanVikas(Ahmedabad based parent organization of IDEAL).

Interestingly, in previous year (2011-12) IDEAL received total foreign fund of Rs. 3,17,34,340.95(3.17 crore+) . The figure of donation received successive year(2012-13) was over Rs. 8 crore! This was a whopping 2.5 time big jump! Most of the funding agencies were same.

Interestingly Dalit Foundation, another NGO which has registered office in same building (Royal Chinmay) received Rs. 1,11,81,561.98 as foreign donation in 2012-13. Christian Aid, Misereor and ICCO Netherlands continued to be the major donors.

IDEAL’s and Dalit Foundation’s mother organization Jan Vikas(purpose for receiving donations: educational and social) which also functions from the same building received foreign fund of Rs. 2,87,19,334.05 in same year.

It means in one single year, Rs. 12,06,94,713.6 foreign fund was sent to one building in Ahmedabad. Of this over Rs. 6 crore (more than half of total) arrived from America itself!

The question is, what are America’s interests for sending Rs. 6 crore plus donation in a single year to one building in Ahmedabad? Why American government’s money was flowing to this building? 12 crore is sum that most Indians don’t earn during their life-time! Why foreign nations sent such a huge sum to India? More important question is that where did the money go? How they spent the money? The websites of respective organization don’t mention details of their spendings! Yes we watched Gagan Sethi, a key person associated with these NGOs on national news channels expressing his opinion against Mr. Narendra Modi and BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. But money his NGO received were not for this purpose, at least on paper!

I must point out a Wikileaks document in which American envoy in year 2008 noted: Gagan Sethi of “Janvikas” who assisted in the Bano case, informed us, “I have overstayed my welcome at all my Mumbai relatives’ houses. Your city is very expensive. My small NGO simply does not have the wherewithal to see another case through.”

Now that was year 2008.

Looking at the accounts of Jan Vikas and associated NGOs in recent years, it’s very clear that Sethi was not only heard, but responded well by Amrika Bahadur.