The Growing AID-India Scandal

[G.Subramaniam]

http://www.geocities.com/aid_india_info/AID_DOC.html

Purpose
Documents
2.1 Fund Only DYFI Libraries
2.2 Marx For Beginners for Children, no to story books
2.3 AID Flip-Flop
2.4 Sandeep Pandey (ASHA Founder) at Naxalite Conference
2.5 About AID
2.6 "DYFI does not receive funds from AID"
2.7 AID Does Fund DYFI
2.8 AID co-sponsors an event with CAIR
2.9 AID chapters host talks by a Marxist ideologue
2.10 AID takes care of DYFI's fund problem
2.11 How to match donations without paying a dime
2.12 Article in a Houston weekly accuses AID of "AIDing & abetting communists"

Purpose
AID India documents which AID higher ups find embarrasing have the habit of dissappearing. We have attempted to store some such articles here and also articles from other sites that have useful information about AID.

Document: Fund only DYFI libraries
Description: An AID document describing the status of the much vaunted 50 block plan a project funded in part by AID.
Content: This document has generated much controversy because of this statement of Balaji Sampath (emphasis ours) :

We should have a minimum of 2000 registered libraries for viability. All health and credit groups of Samam would be registered. As a policy encourage libraries only where linked to such an activity or to an active TNSF/AIDWA/DYFI/PWA group or activist. Start only with Samam or TNSF but at local level keep the scheme open for other organizations also.

Source: AID website (google cache, see top portion of the document for URL). Link not permanant.
Date Archived: 28th December 2004
Useful Info: TNSF is Tamil Nadu Science Forum run by prominent AID India leader Balaji Sampath. AIDWA is All India Democratic Womens Association, the womens wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), DYFI , Democratic Youth Foundation of India is the youth wing of Communist Party of India (Marxist). PWA is the Progessive Writers Association, an association of Marxist and other leftist writers.

Document: No to story books for children, yes to Lenin For Beginners
Description : A collection of AID Dallas Chapter Emails
Content : In this document a prominent AID leader in India tells volunteers volunteers what kind of books to send for an ongoing AID project, again this is a controversial document because given the document, allegations of use of AID funds for Marxist indoctrination cannot be ignored. Scroll to page 21, (all emphasis ours)


Abt purchasing books in second hand shops:
(a) Never purchase children’s books (story books, etc) - it is not easy to tell which is useful and which is not.
(b) Purchase all the following: (first two very good and useful)
---> All books (multiple copies ok) by Micheal Apple, Ivan Ilich (Deeschooling Scoeity

and After Deschooling),
Philippe Aries (Social history of Childhood), John Holt, Maria Montessori,
Danger:School, and all books on
educational expts (the ones that fight against the system of education, not for it) in
the US.
---> All Cartoon Books in the Beginners series - Marx for beginners, Budhha for
Beginners,
Trotsky for beginners, Einstien for beginners, Totstoy for beginners, Freud for
beginners,
Lenin for beginners, Ecology for beginners, etc. Just get any of these books.


Date Archived: 27th December,2004
Source: AID website (see top of document for URL).
Useful Info: Michael Apple is a professor of education in Wisconsin, well known for his leftist/progressive viewpoints, more about Ivan Illich here, the book Deschooling Society is available online, more on Philippe Aries and her book Social History of children here, Marx for Beginners is cartoon book which introduces Marxist thought to children in an easy to understand format, similar statement holds for other books in the beginner series. Almost all of the books mentioned in the relevant email concerning social issues have a strong leftist tilt.


Document: The AID flip flop.
Description: AID deleted references to DYFI. The complete story here

Document : Yes, Sandip Pandey did attend the Naxalite conference
Description: Not directly about AID, but about another favorite of AID leadership, Sandeep Pandey. The famous rediff article does not convince many, for them here is the truth straight from the horses mouth, from CPI(ML)'s mouthpiece liberation.

Content: The liberation article clearly mentions that
Renowned NAPM activist and Magassassay Award winner Sandip Pandey stressed the need of unity of revolutionary communist organisations like CPI(ML) and social movements to take on fascist danger.


Date Archived: 6 January,2005
Source: CPI(ML) website.
Useful Info:

Document: About AID (unzip and open with IE)
Description : A friend of a former AID volunteer raises some interesting questions about AID's financial practices in Bharat Rakshak forum
Content: Here is an excerpt from the post (we have not reproduced personal attacks against certain AID leaders, the archive above contains the complete post, note that this is the opinion of a person claiming to be knowledgable about AID)


tskswamy
Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 1
Posted: 06 Jan 2005 Post subject: About AID
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I normally don't participate in message boards simply because it requires me to visit a website, login, etc. - mailing lists are much easier! I was prompted to visit this board because I was informed of discussions going on about AID (Assoc. for India's Development). One of my close friends was a former volunteer for AID and was actively involved for several years and is the primary source of information (a lot of which can be verified) for the following:

1. AID is NOT a relief organization. The way AID works, the money collected for tsunami relief is unlikely to be spent anytime soon. For Orissa super-cyclone AID collected more than $175,000 of which about $100K to $120K was spent on actual cyclone-relief related projects. Most of the rest was spent on other unrelated projects in Orissa. And this much happened in over two years. A small portion was still left unspent after two years and this was rolled over into their general account to be used for other projects and campaigns. Similarly for the Gujarat EQ AID collected more than $570,000. Of this around $300K was spent on EQ relief and rehab. Again this happened over a span of 2 years or longer. When the riots happened in Gujarat following the Godhra carnage, AID unlitaterally decided to divert the money collected for EQ for "riot-relief" (this while several EQ projects were still pending). There was a lot of discussion about this unethical diversion of funds on AID lists. Senior AID volunteers, including one of the founders apparently commented that AID "was not accountable to its donors" and should "feel free to spend the money as AID see fit". Even after all this close to $100K was (is?) still left in the "Gujarat pool" as AID calls it.

AID has already collected over $1.6 million for tsunami relief. It is simply not capable of disbursing that much money in an efficient way because AID does not work that way. The process of funding a project is fairly involved and requires detailed reviews including background checks on the NGOs carrying out the project in India. This is actually one of the reasons several donors give money to AID. But what this means is that in times of urgent need, either the money doesn't reach the people in need in a timely fashion, or the review process is watered down so all and sundry NGOs may get funded. If the past experience is anything to go by, of the money collected for tsunami relief, not even a quarter will be spent on actual relief. Rehab projects which are actually long term projects will probably get about 50%. That leaves about 25% (will be more than $500K by the time the deluge of donations stops) in AID's coffers for use in its "other activities" which includes sponsoring trips to India by senior AID volunteers (which AID counts as project expenses), trips to the US by globe-trotting "activists" like Setalvad, Arundathi Roy, d'Souza, etc., and its various "campaigns".

Source: Bharat Rakshak Forum

Document: We don't give money to DYFI, claims AID FAQ
Description: AID FAQ claims that they do not give money to AID.
Content: After the controversy about AID's connection to DYFI, AID added this to their FAQ(emphasis ours) :


Q. How does AID work with other groups on the field? Is AID associated with
DYFI?
In Tamil Nadu, AID is sending funds through AID-India which has taken up massive coordination work with several groups on the ground. This includes reputed science movements such as Tamil Nadu Science Forum, Pondicherry Science Forum, community health organizations involved in the People's Health Movement, local women's and youth organizations, advocacy groups such as India Together and Environment Support Group, and individuals from various companies and groups.

The tremendous coordination work involved is described in the detailed report written by Dr. Balaji Sampath, one of our chief full-time organizers in India.
www.aidindia.org/updates/6.html

There have been questions about the mention of DYFI (Democratic Youth Federation of India) in some of the reports, in light of their political affiliations.

Firstly, note that DYFI does not receive any funds either from AID or AID-India. It is one of the youth organizations whose volunteers are involved in the relief work.

Secondly, as described above, AID-India is working with a variety of groups on the ground, and our approach is described in the report from AID Jeevansaathi Dr. Balaji Sampath.

"At this point I would like to add that the enormity of the problem is so much that one must try and work with every sincere group that is doing work on the field, whether NGOs, Govt, local unions and organizations, or other youth and women's organizations and even groups that might have some political affiliations. One cannot afford to be fussy about working with different groups (as long as they are sincere and work efficiently). What matters now is reaching relief and rehabilitation to all those who need it."

Thirdly, people with questions about any particular group should understand the entire context in which the work is going on, as described in the above report. For example, AID-India organized about 350 volunteers to pick up unattended corpses and dispose them, while noone was willing to do this work a couple of days earlier. In a remarkable incident, FOUR days after the tsunami, volunteers rescued 3 people who were alive under the debris; AID-India volunteers worked alongside DYFI volunteers to accomplish this.

We are in constant touch with our grassroots workers in AID Chennai, who are developing and evaluating their interactions with various groups in light of the dire need of volunteers at the grassroots.

To re-iterate, DYFI does not receive any funds either from AID or AID-India. It is only that volunteers of DYFI are participating in the immediate relief efforts, which are co-ordinated by AID Chennai.

Date Archived: January 8, 2004

Note: Mr. Balaji Sampath says, "One cannot afford to be fussy about working with different groups (as long as they are sincere and work efficiently). What matters now is reaching relief and rehabilitation to all those who need it." We are impressed that Mr Sampath is not fussy about working with DYFI, an organization he likes so much that he refuses to use AID's money to fund libraries not linked to it or to organizations closely related to it.

Document: We are sending them funds. Original link

Description: Balaji Sampath has claimed in the AID FAQ that he is not sending money to DYFI, in this document he clearly mentions providing them with funds. What is the truth?

Content: Balaji writes (emphasis ours)

Locally DYFI and TNSF have collected some materials and started the distribution. We have sent them some immediate funds and I will be taking more funds and relief materials with me today.


Date Archived: January 7,2004
Source: medico-international website

Document AID co-sponsors an event jointly with CAIR.

Description: CAIR is an organization known for the extreme views of its leaders. One person strongly associated with CAIR has been sent to jail for being a member of the Lashkar E Toyiba and has been sentenced to twenty years in jail for illegally acquiring firearms and explosives in order to train for terrorist missions against India in Kashmir. Amazingly an organization describing itself as Association for India's Development India co sponsored an event with them. For more details click here

Document: AID hosts a talk by a Marxist ideologue

Description: Many AID chapters organized a talk by Dr. Parameshwaran, "a strong believer in Gandhian, Marxist and Socialist philosophies" as he has been described in the AID document. Among other things, Dr. Parameshwaran is credited with building the All India Peoples Science Network, an organization with stong links with CPI(M). Dr. Parameshwaran was a member of the CPI(M) till February 2004 (the talk took place in 2003) when he was expelled from the CPI(M) following theological differences with the party. In many cases AID chapters have borne transportation and other costs for organizing talks in their chapter, AID almost never mentions that it organizes such talks using during their fundraisers.

Document: AID takes care of DYFI's fund problem (link to rediff article)

Description: An article by a pro-AID journalist Amit Varma..
The following excerpt is especially illuminating

DYFI is a grassroots level organisation, and it has hordes of volunteers who have scattered themselves all across the state. Dr Narasimhan, the doctor who was doing such a brave job at Nagapattinam, is one of them. DYFI suffers from the drawback of not having a high profile and, consequently, having rather low funds. But AID takes care of that.


Surprisingly, Mr. Varma forgets to mention that DYFI is an affiliate of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Document: "Matching" donations given a whole new meaning by AID-Sulekha combine

Description: Sulekha recently claimed to match donations made to AID, dollar by dollar. When a company claims to match your contribution dollar for dollar what exactly do they mean? Especially if they send you send an email which says


SULEKHA.COM-AID TSUNAMI RELIEF FUND: Your Contributions Matched Dollar-for-Dollar
URL: http://www.sulekha.com/aid

You assume, of course, that the company will contribute one dollar for each dollar of yours. Alas, you missed the fine print. All that Sulekha did was create two funds, one for AID and another "matching donations fund", then it diverted some donations to the "matching donations fund", and then used it to match the donations. Simple and brilliant isn't it? Why not have a single fund, why this charade of mixing , matching and taking credit for other peoples genorosity?

All this blew up in the face of AID when a blogger got angry and wrote this

Bogus Matching Fund Claim??
by Srini Veeravanallur
Posted on December 30, 2004 12:4 PM EST
Accessed 222 Times
Hot List Score: 93

I recently donated $500 through Sulekha's portal & was shocked to see my contribution listed as a matching donation though I made no such explicit choice.
It appears that donations of $500 or more are automatically channeled to the matching fund. the matching fund section has $99K while other donations (of less than $500) totalled only about $85K. Thus, only $85K out of the $99K is now effective leaving $14k in surplus in the matching fund.

Thus when sulekha claims that they have matched $85K in donations, they have done nothing of that sort. Of the $184 K donated, they have divided $99K into the matching fund of which only $85k will go to relief efforts & $85K into the other donations fund.

Sulekha & AID, please explain this inappropriate (&illegal?) financial manipulation. Why are you claiming that you are matching every donation? My donation was clearly not matched...

Srini Veeravanallur


AID was forced to put a clarification on its website. Sulekha is unruffled.

Document: Article in a Houston weekly accuses AID of "AIDing & abetting communists"". Link to the article
Excerpt:
AID is also working with the Students Federation of India (SFI) to rebuild two villages in Tamil Nadu. SFI is the student wing (not to be confused with the “youth” wing: DYFI) of the CPI-M, and it has been involved in not only violent and criminal activities like DYFI, but has even displayed treacherous tendencies. Here’s another list detailing some of the “grassroots” activities of SFI:

In December, 2004, SFI voted against a resolution condemning China for repeatedly showing Arunachal Pradesh as not being a part of India at the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union meeting. In August, 2002, SFI cadres beat up students belonging to Rabindra Bharati University for being “inappropriately dressed”. In July, 2002, SFI students were allegedly behind an article appearing in a college magazine in Kerala that praised Osama bin Laden as the “crusader of the poor Muslims the world over”. In September, 2001, 31 SFI activists were arrested on charges of “public property destruction, unlawful assembly and violation of the Explosives Act”.