Of Winners, Wave Rats and Whinos

[narayanan]

Now that was certainly intriguing, but equally unclear. So I asked again. After all, if one is to "retract" and apologize, etc., one had to know WHAT to retract, hey?



<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Dear Shri Venkatesan:

Thanks for narrowing the scope of what you object to, but I must still ask for precise clarification. First, thank you for referring to me with a "professor" designation, but Shri Narayanan will do just fine. I assume that it is likewise OK to call you Shri Venkatesan, not as Electrical Engineering Graduate Student J. Venkatesan, etc. I will assume that you do not lack education, since you write so well.

I see elsewhere that you claim to have delivered medicines to the disaster area on your vacation. I commend that, and it is what motivates me to try to understand you unhappiness with an article which commended AID’s grassroots volunteer effort.

Your complaint apparently refers to the following:

"'The DYFI and the SFI, listed as ‘principal mass organizations’ of the Communist Party (Marxist) of India, profusely thanked AID-India for the free flow of funds to them'

'In a seamless integration of dishonesty and poor taste, AID baldly denied that any funds were going to the DYFI'

1. You complain that Amit Verma’s blog, which I hyperlinked, does not say “that” – but not what about ‘that’. Obviously I wasn’t trying to repeat, or hide, what Verma said, and your allegation of "distortion" is grossly uncalled-for. <b>The purpose of hyperlinking in an Opinion Column, is to let readers read PRECISELY what the link says, at one click. </b> People don’t read things that are just referenced in the endnotes. I did not hyperlink the authoritative source on the nature of CPI(M) and DYFI. Unlike AID leaders, my focus was not on DYFI’s political lineage at such a time, but on their relief activities. If Verma is unhappy, he, not you, should contact me with proper identification, and explain why he is unhappy to have his BLOG publicized.

2. "profusely thanked AID-India for the free flow of funds to them”

I am going to assume that you are too smart to contest that. Clearly the DYFI has far better taste than AID's leaders, because they had the basic decency to show gratitude. Surely you don't want me to focus any more attention on that! All that remains then is:

3. "'In a seamless integration of dishonesty and poor taste, AID baldly denied that any funds were going to the DYFI "

Now what is your position, please?
a) That AID leaders did NOT deny that AID-collected funds were going to DYFI? That would be a lie, not just poor taste. They denied it very clearly.

b) That they are not bald? The term “bald denial” is a figure of speech unrelated to hair style.

c) That it was in good taste for AID leaders to write so contemptuously about the grassroots volunteers who were desperately trying to help their neighbors?

d) That it was 0% bad taste, but 100% dishonesty? I don't think so, and you seem to agree.

e) It was 100% bad taste and completely honest? Well... that’s an interesting interpretation of the word "honest".

I did NOT say that "AID is sending funds to DYFI". It was your bloggers etc. who led readers to believe that, very loud and clear, as long as you were soliciting funds. Presumably this was to make donors believe that AID actually had someone on the ground delivering relief, rather than 'blogging' and touring. I see <b>Verma admitting</b> now that his statements were interpreted by readers that way, to the extent <b>that DONORS COMPLAINED!</b>

Per your 'rebuttal', AID now confirms that:
a) AID lacked grassroots volunteers in India, but did not lack funds

b) DYFI could organize and mobilize plenty of volunteers in India, but lacked funds

c) It was a brilliant idea to put these two together, so that you had both funds to organize the volunteers and volunteers whom the funds could organize. <b>Verma makes it very clear that AID funds and DYFI manpower are complementary. </b>

From your own "rebuttal", quoting Verma:<b> "AID India have set certain objectives for themselves in terms of socal work, and using DYFI's manpower can help their achieve those goals."</b>

When your own donors started complaining, (as I read from Verma's "clarification”), AID humiliated the DYFI volunteers in public, while those poor guys were still out there braving fatal infections. I felt (and still feel) compelled to point out the injustice of that. After the DYFI had worked so hard, your leaders, sitting fat and happy in the US spending the overhead from the donors' funds, were (and still are) saying, in effect: "Yech! I don't like the party for whom the DYFI vote in democratic elections! I won’t give the DYFI of this money collected for relief activities!" It sickened me.  <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->

Now I can't tell exactly what percentage of that was dishonesty, vs. sheer bad taste, so I called it a "seamless integration" of those. Let me assure you, since you say you are in "higher education", that if you don't see what is less than honest in your organization's actions and statements, you have a SERIOUS problem. I believe your university has an “honor code” which may help you understand these issues, which are supposed to be learned in kindergarten, before you make some horrible error in front of people who are not as liberal and sympathetic as I am. I also do encourage you very strongly to take this up within your organization, and get leaders who are worthy of the grand name: "Association for India's Development".  <!--emo&:guitar--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/guitar.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='guitar.gif' /><!--endemo-->

The other “clarifications” and “corrections” came after my article appeared, and completely confirm that AID and DYFI are a tight fit. Perhaps reader comments caused AID leaders to start acquiring some glimmer of good taste (doubtful), but what they did in those hectic days was, well....   <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->

I tried to be as nice as possible, precisely because I recognized that the volunteers in the field, and the naive kids doing fundraising here, were innocent of this. It was the leadership's fault.

Thanks for the kind words about the rest of my article, and your sentiment that all honest desi fundraising organizations (and there are only a few) should work together for the good of our respective nations. I have always have agreed and worked very hard for that. However, this is hindered precisely because people like your AID leaders have these Caste Untouchability hang-ups and other superstitions about people’s voting preferences, place and family of birth, etc. etc, which leave people wondering about their standards of honesty even with themselves.

Get leaders who are honest and not driven by political greed, who understand the basic standards of humanity needed for a truly Secular (not Communist) and free India. I, as a donor to Indian-American charities, would be glad to see that.

Please do clarify your problem with the statements you have cited.

Best regards <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->