: Why I Support The IDRF! -- http://www.sulekha.com/column.asp?cid=305795

Author: Narayanan Komerath -- http://www.sulekha.com/authordesc.asp?authid=12234

Why I Support The IDRF!
by Narayanan Komerath

 

Holding his bright red “Inquilab Zindabad!” sign, Dr. Vijay Prashad, founder of the Forum of Indian Leftists, encourages us Indians and Indian-Americans, mindless money-grubbers that we are, to “model-minority suicide” [1]. I am one of those Petit-Bourgeois Running-Dogs of the Paper Tigers of the Neo-Colonialist Capitalist Imperialist Military Industrial Complex, in the convoluted terminology of Prashad's Communist friends[2]. In other words, I have to work for a living. Prashad's sign means “Long Live the Revolution” -- and it's as familiar to me, a Kerala expatriate, as the Marxists' violent record. With the Soviet Union gone, and China and Vietnam forgetting Inquilab, the followers of Marx, Mao and Minh [3] appear to have focused on India and the USA to wage their war against hope and opportunity.

First let me thank Professors Biju Mathew, Vijay Prashad, Angana Chatterji, Shalini Gera, Ravi Rajan, Vinay Lal and their co-authorities on “South Asia” for kicking me out of my apathy. When I read the hype about their “comprehensive 91-page report” called The Foreign Exchange of Hate sponsored by “Sabrang Communications” in November, I felt that I had been kicked in the teeth. For the past five years, I had given all I could give to the India Development and Relief Fund to help families of Indians killed by terrorists[4]. And guess what, this made me a “trained Sangh Parivar activist” and a “Hindutva Supremacist Fascist hatemonger” according to that report!

In the weeks since, I have actually read that “report” -- and a lot else on the subject. This appears to be unfashionable among media and South Asia experts, who seem afflicted with “Not-Beyond-Page-One-Syndrome” in their rush to condemnation. This realization moved me to write to you. Let me share 3 simple reasons why I support the IDRF:

 

1. From Francois Gautier who's been there[5]: “The other day I visited a tribal village, which was only 20 kms away from Bhubaneswar. The poverty I witnessed there was appalling: no drinking water, no proper housing, the children to whom we distributed food packets were sickly-looking, undernourished, dirty and badly clothed… In fact the only organisation which is trying to do something -- and which was responsible for the food distribution as well as the sole tribal school in the whole area -- is the much maligned Washington-based IDRF…”

2. From The Hindu dated May 24, 2001[6]: “The case of three-year-old Manoj and two-year-old Arshita… Their parents had put them up in the bus at one of the bus stops at Bannerghatta. The credulous children sat till 8 p.m. in the bus, hoping for their parents to come… They were, at last, sent to Vatsalya Charitable Trust, where they are being taken care of…” 3. And from [7] “Kushta Nivaran Sangh was looked upon by common people with a little worry… The collections were meagre. His determination, however, was applauded when a generous donor for the first time, donated an acre of unproductive land with a hut and a well. Adding his own life-earned fortune to these donations, Katreji made a cottage where a batch of 3 leprosy patients were sheltered. A pound of rice per housewife of Champa town could meet out the hunger of these patients. This ball thus started rolling. The funds gathered were able to add a few acres of land. This resulted in regaining self-confidence amongst the patients who by now had learnt to breathe freely and started to dream of spring in life. This zeal for life induced the patients to undertake more responsibilities of respectable life. The craze for respect as human beings, leads them to work hard for the cause.”

What do the above three items have in common?

 

1. Each derives support from the IDRF and those “Sangh Parivar” organizations. The Vatsalya Trust in Bangalore is not funded by IDRF, but Vatsalya in Mumbai is -- and the Trust is admired the world over for their immense experience in working with and caring for orphans and street-kids. I learned this by searching the web and reading what I found.

2. Each is run by simple, determined, incredibly brave people who spend their years helping those who have nowhere else to turn. They don't burn buses or wave Red Banners of Revolution. They work and care. Constantly. Quietly. Calmly. Lovingly.

3. According to the FOIL Gang's “Report”, each is set up to “spread hate”. Vatsalya is rated “Hindu religious”. The other two are “RSS”. All funded by IDRF to “spread hate”. And, hey, that declaration has been “endorsed” by a bunch of PhDs in South Asia Studies -- the superior beings whom Associate Professor of History at UCLA, Dr. Vinay Lal, declares [8] as owning the unique knowledge which allows them to see what we mere “Indians” cannot. Why, he even “knows” that the Miraj Medical Center, an affiliate of the Church of North India and an IDRF support-recipient, is a deep-cover “RSS-affiliate”!

 

I too did once get a college education of sorts. In the first week they taught me that “it is more important to get up and light a candle than to sit around cursing the darkness.” A concept alien to those who endorsed the anarchist petition to ban the Vatsalya Trust Orphanages, the Kushta Nivaran Sangh, the tribal school near Bhubhaneshwar, and 175 other organizations like them -- along with the IDRF.

The signatories admonish us not to take them lightly. The number of “Chairs” there would fill a fair-sized flea-market. “Concerned Indians”? These? Really? Several are held in high esteem in their native lands -- Pakistan, Iraq to name a few... Others are poster children of Communism. But you see, that's the other thing I was taught long ago -- to trust facts and common sense -- and that it doesn't matter how many South Asia Chairs or fools repeat a lie -- it is still a lie. You're supposed to read and check the facts and think before you “endorse the conclusions” of any report.

Removing all doubt about their standards, Dr. Vinay Lal used the Miraj Medical Center example to warn us [8] that mere affiliation with the Church of North India and the Presbyterian Church of North America will not serve to “exonerate” an organization which the South Asia Chairs in their wisdom have “accused” of being an “RSS front” and of thus supporting Indian democracy. By then, as he surely knew, there were summaries listing ten examples on the web [9] and a pointed warning [10] showing how bogus his favorite Report is. Now I can find independent reports on many more IDRF-funded organizations[11]. A long way from 178 still, so let's go back to that “Report” -- the product of “five years of meticulous research” by such august intellectuals.

What exactly do they cite as “evidence” against IDRF? Their “summary” is analyzed in [9] -- and sorted into allegations, rhetoric and whines. The rhetoric and whining leave me cold. I neither asked the IDRF -- nor do I care -- if they are Marxist, Congress or RSS -- all are OK by the Indian Constitution. I'm a Running Dog of Capitalism, remember? I care about near-zero overhead rate and effectiveness in delivering aid. Manoj and Arshita, the patients at the Kushta Nivaran Sangh, and the tribal kids whom Gautier saw, are probably with me on that. I don't care whether the Communists or Pakistanis approve of those who rescued people trapped under earthquake wreckage -- and neither did the trapped people.

I can't see why it is wrong for IDRF volunteers -- or anyone else -- to believe in, or vote for any legitimate party that they choose in free elections. Neither did the voters in the world's largest democracy who elected the BJP-led coalition, despite having the chance to elect Sabrang's sponsors and their Marxist friends. And it leaves me cold that Dr. Biju Mathew doesn't like Hindus (read his definition of Hinduism) -- or Dr. Angana Chatterji chose to curse India in Dawn of Karachi [12] while Indian citizens were getting murdered by Pakistani terrorists.

But wait! There is actually one allegation that someone who went to a school run by the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in southern Gujarat was alleged to have been seen during the rioting there -- by people whose “allegations” apparently have never stood up in a court of law. The kicker is, I can't see any evidence that IDRF funded anything run by Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Gujarat. And neither did the FOIL Gang's Report -- the nearest thing to “vanvasis” (forest dwellers) listed there under 'Gujarat' is the Lions' Club. As they say in America: “Where's the Beef?”

India, like America, appears to have an ongoing debate about school curricula. I tried to learn the issues. I learned that a Marxist Minister in Pondicherry got arrested for disrupting a school where kids were learning Sanskrit. Sounds familiar... The media wisdom on this is very illuminating too [13]:

“And what are the assertions made in these textbooks? That Ram Janmabhoomi is Ram's birthplace..”

Hmm! I know enough Sanskrit to translate “janmabhoomi” to “birthplace”. Bright guess: should that have been “Pervez Musharraf's birthplace” perhaps? No reason here either to stop supporting IDRF. Das Kapital is not banned in India -- why should the Ramayana be banned?

This so-called “Report” is still being touted by the “Stop Funding” Hate Campaign. They came out with a Frequently Asked Questions page -- which was rather easy to sort into laughs, outright lies, half-truths and whines. Quite an entertaining document -- over 50% got classified as laughs after our own “meticulous, painstaking research”. On January 28, they came out with a further clarification of what bothers them -- and left no doubt about their views on religion, democracy, and India in general. According to them, even 50,000 Indian signatures would not be as valuable as the “diverse” signatures they have -- from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq... Yeah! Don't we “mere Indians” need these sorts to tell us how to run a free democracy? And whether we should be allowed to help Indian tribal kids or soldiers' families to get a chance to succeed in society?

So... maybe we should look at who's making these accusations. We find that several are members of “the Forum of Indian Leftists” (FOIL). Their founder (my apologies if that should have been “Chairman”), Dr. Vijay Prashad, assures us that West Bengal under the Communists has been free of corruption and violence (I'm so glad to hear of this tremendous improvement since my teenage days in India!) The FOIL's own favorite charity is the “SINGH Foundation” -- with an overhead rate of around 52%, with over $39,000 (over Rs. 18.5 lakhs) used for their own travel [14]. They really seem to believe that “charity begins at home” -- judging by Sabrang's call for donations to SINGH -- to pay themselves. All through the Kargil war, until Nov. 24, 2002, Sabrang's web page featured an India without Kashmir and the Northeast, and a Pakistan plus Kashmir. They make sure that communal hangups never leave the news or the minds of Indian children.

Search the internet for “the Communist Party (Marxist) of India”. You'll find “People's Democracy - Weekly Organ of the CPI-M” where Prashad and Mathew publish their convoluted output. You'll also find the “People's War Group” (CPI-ML) which has been in the news recently for blowing up a bus full of villagers, and numerous other murders. And you'll find, prominently displayed, “death warrants” against the elected Chief Ministers of three Indian states. Prashad's model for India?

Search for Ghadar, the “journal” of the FOIL. You'll find that it was defunct for over two years. But they magically found resources to resume publication in a hurry, proclaiming that it was time to get organized again. The first issue came out on February 21, 2002. Remember what happened a week later? Coincidence? Ask yourself: who really had the motives to start Gujaratis killing each other in early 2002?

So here are the tough questions: Whom should we believe, and help with our “NRI dollars”? The IDRF which supports those who care for kids like Manoj and Arshita, and that leprosy care center? Or the SINGH Foundation which funds the Welfare Queens as they make “Inquilab Zindabad” signs, post General Musharraf's maps of “South Asia” from Mumbai, and slander anything that helps Indians? Who are the communalist hate-mongers? The Kushta Nivaran Sangh, or Setalwad, Mathew and the FOIL? And what of those Faculty who abused the names of respected institutions as they endorsed a rabidly malicious piece of garbage as a “product of five years of meticulous research”? Should we not wonder what sorts of PhD theses come out with their endorsements? Do you want your children to learn ethics, history, culture and competence from these “South Asia Chairs”? Or the simple stuff that IDRF helps teach the kids of remote Indian villages? I choose IDRF. So, I hope, will you. And so have over seventy-six hundred others who have voted for the “Let India Develop” petition [15] asking the anarchist losers to quit hate-mongering and go do something useful.

Notes

[1] Caswell, Michelle, Smashing the Myth of the Model Minority: An Interview with Vijay Prashad, Asia Source, http://www.asiasource.org/society/Prashad.cfm

[2] Mathew, B., Prashad, V., “Hindutva For a Few Dollars a Day, People's Democracy, Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Vol. XXV, No. 12, March 25, 2001.

[3] Prashad, Vijay,” Red Salute, Comrade Uncle Ho”.  ZNET Daily Commentaries, Sep. 4, 1999. http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/1999-09/4prashad.htm

[4] The author and other concerned Indians initiated, through IDRF, the Martyrs for National Integration Fund, which aims to provide long-term support to families of Indian soldiers and law-enforcement personnel hurt in fighting to keep India together. IDRF adopted this project and provided matching funds.

[5] Gautier, Francois, “Marxism and the Saffron wave”, Rediff, December 20, 2002 http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/dec/20franc.htm):

[6] “Destitute Parents Abandon Children on Bus”, The Hindu, May 24, 2001. http://www.hindu.com/2001/05/24/stories/0424402x.htm

[7] Kushta Nivaran Sangh, Katre Nagar, Champa, Distt. Bilaspur http://www.idrf.org/reports/kns/kns_nn4.html

[8] Vinay Lal, Associate Professor, Department of History, UCLA, “Response to IDRF Press Release” December 24, 2002.

[9] Friends of India, “Consider – Facts About the Attack on the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) by Sabrang Communications and the Forum of Indian Leftists (FOIL)” December 8, 2002. http://www.geocities.com/charcha_2000/essays/consider.html

[10] Mehra, B., “Attack on IDRF: Little Method to Their Madness”. http://www.sulekha.com/column.asp?cid=274949, Dec. 11, 2002

[11] Friends of India, “A Critical Look at the Organized Labor of Hate - The Attack on the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) …” January 2003. http://www.geocities.com/charcha_2000/essays/critlook_1.html

[12] Chatterji, Angana, “A Grave Concern” Letter to the Editor Published in “The Dawn”of Karachi, dated June 2, 2002 http://www.dawn.com/2002/06/02/letted.htm#1

[13] Mukherjee, Debashish, “Education Controversy – It is a war of ideas”, The Week, Nov. 15, 1998.

[14] Friends of India, “Sabrang FAQ meets Reality”

[15] “Let India Develop” Petition. http://www.letindiadevelop.org