India is big. India has huge growth potentials. India has all factors in its favour that can make it a prosperous economy. But there are some huge deterrents too. The population explosion is probably the biggest deterrent. There is rampant corruption and widespread illiteracy. Gender bias and religious prejudices are not exactly uncommon. Some states are lagging far behind others. But then any growing nation will have these challenges in front of it. India can still make it to the top in spite of all these deterrents.
True. And we are growing at quite a steady pace but we could have grown with faster pace, had we been free of the pests that infest the length and breadth of our country. There are Jihadists who are obsessed with blowing houses, offices, temples, markets, people and even themselves. There are spineless seculars on a perpetual excuse hunting expedition to blame the majorities and shield the minorities. There is the political correct media that lacks the willpower to present news-as-it-is. There are liberals and commies who love all the aforesaid people and sometimes fund them too. But there is one section of people who are inflicting maximum damage on the very soul of India. The blood sucking vampires operate their dark realms from our soil and work against our interest.
I am talking about the NGOs – Non Government Organizations.
4470 NGOs in India have been delicensed this month. Licenses for 8875 NGOs were revoked in April for violation of rules governing foreign funds. The Government of India has many more NGOs on its watch list. Let us get into the numbers and technicalities later on. Let us first see what NGOs in India do?
On the surface most NGOs (and I am talking about the big ones) do all kinds of Jagat-Kalyaan job. From empowering women to educating girl child, from conserving water to harvesting rain water, from saving forests from being usurped by land mafia to protesting against big corporations, NGOs stand for the rights of the weak and the downtrodden. Beneath the surface however work for most NGOs (and I am again talking about the big ones) converts into jagat-minus-india work which technically converts into anti-India work. Greenpeace, Amnesty, ActionAid etc. are heavily funded NGOs that serve foreign interests. Their donors remain secret and their methods remain one big black box. And they are not the only ones. In the words of R Vaidyanathan, professor (finance) at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore “Many NGOs that do receive foreign funding are not covered under the Right to Information Act. Hence, finding information about their finances becomes difficult. Additionally, some groups don’t even have websites, which only makes it more cumbersome to find out details about their finances.”
Here are some interesting facts:
India has 3100000 NGOs.
It is more than double the number of schools in India
250 times the number of government hospitals
We have one policeman for 709 people while we have 1 NGO/400 people
Now let us come to the numbers. Here is the breakup for the amount of foreign contribution received by NGOs in India:
Year: 2008-09
Number of NGOs: 23172
Amount Received: 10997.35 Crores
Year: 2009-10
Number of NGOs: 22275
Amount Received: 10431.12 Crores
Year: 2010-11
Number of NGOs: 22735
Amount Received: 10334.12 Crores
Now look at the biggest donors:
United States: Rs 3105.73 crores.
Germany Rs 1046.3 crores.
United Kingdom: Rs 1038.68 crores.
And now let us check the biggest benefactors out:
Gospel for Asia Inc, USA: Rs 232.71 crores.
Fundacion Vicente Ferrer, Spain: Rs 228.60 crores.
World Vision Global Centre, USA: Rs 197.62 crores.
(Source: Rediff India)
When there is big money involved, there are big intentions involved too. A lot of NGOs in India are involved in paying off people for staging protests against corporations and projects. The Koodankulam nuclear plant agitation or the agitation in Odisha against POSCO can be taken up as good case studies. Other NGOs are involved in killing the brand image that India is. One example would be their desperate attempt to make India look like the “Rape Capital”. Another would be the “Minority is not safe” in Modi’s India attempt. Propagation of western style feminism can be taken as the third example. Some NGOs are conventional conversion christian schools. A percentage of the funds received is doled out as freebies for achieving mass-scale conversions. Most of the protesters protesting against government projects turn out to be hapless tribals. Upon closer examination they turn out to be tribals converted into Christians. Coincidences you see! The agenda of most of the big NGOs in India is set by foreign countries that want to ensure that India is not self-reliant. The smaller NGOs however do meaner jobs and provide an efficient way for converting black money into white. Some even allow individuals to cheat on their income taxes.
Now let us come to the technicality of it:
According to the Foreign Funding Contribution (Regulation) Act, it is mandatory for NGOs to be registered under this law to receive funds from abroad. They also need to declare their donor names. Any NGO that doesn’t fit the bill and/or refuses to comply should be closed down.
That’s exactly what Modi and Co. are doing and they deserve a pat on their backs for this. Yes we need to empower the weak and the downtrodden. Yes we need to conserve our natural resources. Yes we need to be a pluralistic and all-inclusive society. But we don’t need American dollars for that. A clear vision, an efficient government machinery and a constructive participation of the citizens is all we need.
Trivia: When TFI hit 100,000 mark, a gentleman offered to help me in starting an NGO with the same name. He said it will be big business. I BANNED him.
This ranter, who I’m guessing has not gone an iota of selfless service in his life, has taken it upon himself to disparage people who run free schools, provide shelter to the needy and do all manner of tasks without which the people being benefited would have been unimaginably worse off .
It is not this delusional and morally twisted sicko’s sad life outside of running his zealot hotspot page on facebook that concerns me , but the naive gullible consumers of his propaganda who very fluildy follow the herd that is very carefully collected by banning all dissenting voices. As it is this pathetic guy has done the best that he will ever get to doing, from his station in life to fermenting a persecution complex to bullying minorities to igniting a civil war type conflagration in India( the wet dream of every sanghi)
.
I would ask this punk to introspect and see the error of his ways, but such advise would be lost on this mentally ossified zombie.
Wow, that must have took a lot of time for you and your group to come up with such intricately planned comment. So much harted!! wow…..now we know the impact of his articles….Glad that it is reaching places where it should.
“my group “….”impact”…hahaha !
Seriously.I was thinking the same.He used up all his gray cells,just to write a rant.
Preetham, its a kinda article, where you read its Headline and you know what the first two lines gonna be. Rest is Namo Chalisa.
So its Impact = Bullshit.
He is on the job bro!
Sir enlighten me please, why was Modi Govt. in Gujarat was taking so much donation from NGOs? Including Ford Foundation? Also loan over Gujarat from 2001 to 2014.
And where does your and SuSu Swamys knowledge comes from. Are you Sanjay of Mahabharat? How come “staging protests against corporations” is unethical? And who will make sure without NGOs if a Jungle or Tribe vanishes from the Map for Modi smart city plan? TFI or Presstitute Media? Who saved Arey Milk Colony, the only green space of Mumbai from becoming part of ‘Development’?
Write an article that people don’t expect from you. This repetitive Modi Chalisa is becoming too much from your team.
//Write an article that people don’t expect from you//
Okay! give me a list of such topics man.
Minorities are not safe in India is one
and…
No no sir that topic wud be blasphemous for you. Shakha waale kya kahenge!!
But yea, you can write about life of Farmers and Tribes under Modi govt. may be as they gonna be the prime victims of ‘Development’.
Also why not, Criminals in BJP and what is Modijis vision to eliminate them.
A biographical piece on Amit Shahs career in Gujarat wud be great as you know very much about everything associated with his party.
Want more??
Errr are you feeling like Jr. journo who’s writing truth might make him lose his job? Let it be then.
Time to show some balls mate to be a man.
Aaptards Aashish & Slayer be like,
“OMG thats too much facts for me to verify and counter their arguments so im just gonna say 2002, Amit Shah fake encounter, TFI is licking Modi’s hand, there are so many good NGO’s etc and viola its a great counter comment to this article so that everyone knows what a fake this website is…”
Sigh… Try harder..
I think Atul still cud get what you cud not mate. We just asked source of his facts and why is he generalising NGOs.
But you are shithead…do not try harder.
One of the primary reasons for the existence of civil society/NGOs is to ensure that government policies are representative of the interests of all people. Whether this involves suing the government or protesting, it is all part and parcel of a thriving democracy. What is seen by unnecessary protesting by the government/supporters of the government, may well be critically needed by a smaller group of people being displaced or exploited. It is not the job of civil society to serve the government.
If the government keeps openly attacking any NGO that seems to take a stance against the work of this government, then it only goes to show the incapability of the government to recognize issues that exist on the ground. Are we honestly going to say that there are no real societal issues on the ground? Are we going to say that we have no real issues related to healthcare, education and equality in the country? All causes that the so called enemy NGOs are fighting, have strong local backing and very clear empirical evidence of existence of issues. If all the government wants to propagate is a conspiracy theory of these organizations existing to ‘malign India’s image’, then it only goes to show how far separated the government is from reality.
The problem is not so much with putting a stop to foreign funding but with extending our silly ban culture to any stance that differs from the government’s.
The problem with these NGOs is that they whine and complain about poverty, malnutrition, lack of drinking water, etc. yet simultaneously agitate endlessly against development policies, like building factories, roads, dams, etc that would fix these problems for a large group of people over the long term merely because they also would hurt a small group of people over the short term, yet don’t offer any better long term alternative. Like it or not, by opposing development policies, these well-meaning NGOS are promoting stagnation.
What if you wake up one morning and see a bulldozer outside your window waiting to raze your house to the ground in order to build a road or a dam? Would you not want your interests to be represented by someone? Often the group of people who have to stand aside for the larger goal of development are the most vulnerable and marginalized. If the government literally wants to ban every avenue that represents their interest, then we are directly subverting democracy.
I’d take the compensation offered and buy a new house somewhere else. As far as interests are concerned, they really ought to be represented by elected representatives, not by unelected, foreign funded, agenda driven professional agitators. If Indian MLAs and MPs are too corrupt or incompetent to do so, then that is a systemic problem that needs to be fixed; circumventing this with NGOs is not a sustainable solution.
Furthermore, these NGO’s are not all pure and innocent. As Mishra points out some of the most influential are WorldVision and Gospel for Asia, which are Christian supremacist evangelical NGOs that are only interested in “soul harvesting” and spreading religious tensions. In any case, the Indian government isn’t “banning” NGOs per se, it is demanding that they adhere to Indian laws regarding foreign funding. It is kind of ridiculous for these NGOs to insist that they are “representing the interests of all people” in India yet flout Indian law.
Additionally, you did not address my main point: the fact that these NGOs generally do not present viable alternatives to the policies they mindlessly protest against. If they had their way, not a single twig of leaf anywhere in India would be allowed to be disturbed, economic growth be damned. Like the dog in the manger, they neither propose better alternatives to government policy, nor allow the government to do its job and bring economic development by building much needed infrastructure for millions of people. The people of India need roads, factories, power plants, dams and other infrastructure to be built quickly if India is to develop at anything more than a snail’s pace, create jobs, and bring millions out of poverty. By engaging in perpetual obstructionism without proposing alternatives, these NGOs are causing stagnation for the many for the sake of their pet cause, so it’s only to be expected that some people have a problem with that.
Well, I wasn’t specifically referring to you. In general, many in the middle and upper class don’t even want to pay taxes and follow basic rules and regulations – it would be surprising to see them give up their houses and lives in the name of overall ‘development’.
Of course all NGOs are not innocent. But the larger point is, that the government can’t just ‘ban’ any opinion that goes against its own. Should we ban the entire judicial system as well, since it may appear to go against the government’s will?Also, on the other hand, an Ambani can speak directly to the PM if he wants to.
NGO’s/Civil society constantly provide alternative policies. In fact many times standing committees in the parliament constitute of representatives from civil society.
You are forgetting that there are plenty of farmers willing to sell their land given that the government is mandating that they be given several times its market value. In any case, if Indians are unwilling to follow basic rules and regulations like paying taxes, then that is a problem, not something laudatory. This is the same selfish, myopic, apathetic mindset that leads to garbage in the streets, chaotic traffic, the repeated election of corrupt, murderous politicians, and other problems that a broadminded citizenry looking out for the national interest ought to have the maturity to prevent. This myopic selfishness at the expense of the national interest is not a mindset that the Indian government ought to be encouraging. If the people are myopic, and the government is looking at the long term benefits, then the government is not at fault.
You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. If the Indian government worried about every single toe that it was stepping on, it would never get anything done, and the very same people who whine about “land grabbing” and “pro corporate” policies would turn around and accuse the government of being ineffective and slow. If NGOs have alternative policies, then that’s a good thing, but just as it is not the job of NGOs to serve the government, it is not incumbent on the government to listen to every hare-brained, anti-growth suggestion, let alone respect every pointless populist obstruction to development. Remember, the Indian government is elected, the NGOs are not. The Indian government has a responsibility to millions voters who need jobs and infrastructure, not to NGOs and their eccentricities. And again, the Indian government is not “banning” anything, it is merely demanding that these NGOS follow foreign funding laws. It is patently ridiculous for these organizations to claim to be “representing all sections of Indian society” while casually flouting Indian law.
Yes, all NGOs must follow rules. But when government actions are selective, to support an agenda that suits itself, then it merely becomes a case of misusing power. This has been the case over the past few months seeing the way environmental and social NGOs have been targeted. There is obviously nothing inherently wrong in foreign funding coming into the country. If there was, we wouldn’t care for FDI either.
No one is circumventing any democratic process. Having an active civil society is as much part of a democracy as elected representatives are.
I think the fundamental differences in our arguments are that you see development more a a product of economic development through boosting of the GDP etc. While from my perspective, development needs to additionally and importantly address basic of marginalized communities which can not be continued to trampled upon in the chase for economic growth ( as has unfortunately been the case often).
Well of course a government is going to “support an agenda that suits itself.” What do you expect it do to? Support an agenda that suits its opponents? The current Indian government has no problem with foreign funds per se and is actually trying to increase foreign investment in India. It does, however, have a problem with unregulated foreign funding and is therefore demanding that NGOs follow the rules. This is neither unreasonable nor undemocratic. Even NGOs that the Indian government disagrees with would be allowed to continue to function if they were not casually flouting Indian law. Breaking the law in such a fashion is indeed undemocratic, and NGOs can hardly whine about “civil society being suppressed” when they are clearly at fault here.
As far as development is concerned, there does not have to be any contradiction between GDP growth and helping marginalized communities. Indeed, many marginalized people in India are marginalized precisely because there has not been enough economic growth to provide them with the jobs they need to pull themselves out of poverty, or enough infrastructural development to transport food or provide them with water, electricity, roads, etc. to increase their standard of living. True economic growth is that which enables people to stand on their own two feet and properly utilize their industriousness, creativity, and ingenuity, which often manifests itself in GDP growth. In the name of “helping the poor”, India has treated the idea of GDP growth as anathema for decades and the poor have suffered the most because of it. NGOs have not exactly helped to dispel this irrational prejudice.
If the government targets organizations that do not support its agenda, then how is that acceptable? Why is it so scared of having viewpoints that differ from its own? With this logic, it was also ok for the Congress to do whatever it wanted to because it was serving its own interests. Selective policy making and arbitrary decision making is as clear a form of corruption as exists.
And we can’t continue to be delusional and think that GDP growth helps ‘all’. Here’s just one example of how GDP growth doesn’t combat some of the most basic social issues faced by crores – http://www.wahsarkar.com/2013/08/a-baby-born-in-bangladesh-is-more-likely-to-survive-than-one-born-in-india/
The government is not targeting organizations that don’t support its agenda, it is demanding that these organizations follow foreign funding laws. If they don’t, then they are in violation of the law and deserve to be shut down. If NGOs refuse to follow Indian law, then that’s their fault, not the governments. This is very different than the Congress arbitrarily banning organizations that do in fact follow the law. The former action is law enforcement, while the latter is an abuse of power.
As far as your example is concerned, one of the reasons that Indian children are less likely to survive than Bangladeshi children is because Indians can’t afford private healthcare, which they would be able to pay for more easily were there more economic growth and more job opportunities available, or in other words, more GDP growth. Instead, the Indian government has generally chosen to “help marginalized communities” through reservations, handouts, subsidies, and other stopgap measures that do not address systemic problems, and the results have been lackluster at best.
Well the social sector feels that organizations in people-centric issues like anti-nuclear activism, anti-coal activism, anti-genetically modified organism activism and anti-mega project initiatives are the ones being specifically targeted. So there is hypocrisy here. Here is the draft for the new guidelines http://mha1.nic.in/pdfs/draftamendment_170615.pdf
The draft gives the message that NGOs must not use foreign funds for activities “detrimental to national interest, likely to affect public interest, or likely to prejudicially affect the security, scientific, strategic or economic interest of the state.”
However, no definition of ‘national interest’, ‘public interest’ or ‘security, scientific, strategic or economic interest’ has been provided, opening the door, NGOs say, to official action against a whole range of activities that are otherwise legal under Indian law. Is that abuse of power enough?
http://thewire.in/2015/06/19/new-draft-rules-tighten-the-noose-around-foreign-funded-ngos-in-india-4332/
Another example – It is worth noting that the Delhi High Court in Association For Democratic Reforms And Anr Vs Union Of India And Ors, found that both the BJP and the Congress had received funds in violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).
It boils down to the same mode of development argument. I think this sums it up well. “The government does not have to bind NGOs around in iron chains of restrictive compliance. This is especially galling given the open license other sectors like corporates receive. Here there is a presumption that all that the corporate sector does is ‘beneficial’ while everything an NGO does is seen at the outset as a possible threat.”
So coming to your assumption that the poor need to be able to pay for private healthcare. The basic message from the Bangladesh example is that GDP growth does not mean success across all basic human development index indicators. Bangladesh is far behind India in GDP/capita. But from a worse position a few decades back, is now better off in certain human development indicators. This is shameful for us. I think part of the problem is that in our jingoism, we fail to see how badly large sections of populations in India are doing. Hence, we end up dreaming of these hypothetical situations where the poor will start affording private healthcare? How many countries are there in the world where the poor are benefited from private healthcare systems? Practically none. In the middle and upper class, we seem to have no context of the plight of the masses. We rank 135th in human development, sandwiched between Tajikistan and Bhutan. Namibia, war torn Iraq and Algeria rank higher than us. Our children are worse off or at par with those in sub-Saharan Africa. We need to stop being delusional about just economic growth solving everything.
Pat on your back too for supporting such BJPs men and banning NGOs.
https://www.facebook.com/TruthOfGujarat/videos/959416970789221