UPA finds a foreign way to fix Anna & Co

UPA finds a foreign way to fix Anna & Co Source: VSK- CHENNAI Date: 8/10/2012 4:29:29 PM NEW DELHI, AUGUST 10, 2012 : Can foreign funding be used to sponsor domestic agitations in India? Team Anna may have been disbanded but its worries are far from over. With a PIL raising this issue in connection with alleged grants made by Ford Foundation to Team Anna, the Home Ministry is pursuing an investigation into allegations that the anti-graft agitation was funded by foreign agencies. It is learnt that this is no flippant probe and the Ministry is quite serious about the investigation. It all began with an advocate Manohar Lal Sharma moving a public interest petition in the Delhi High Court in which he listed several Team Anna members, including Hazare, Manish Sisodia, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan and Shanti Bhushan as respondents. His petition argued, “This civil society group, jointly and severally, has been receiving funds from Ford Foundation and other foreign companies/organisations for running their anti-graft movement.” In that same petition, Sharma raised two pertinent questions. He sought the court’s opinion on a) whether foreign-sponsored movement/anti-government graft agitation is permitted under the Constitution of India b) whether violation of foreign contribution (regulation) Act, 1976 is not an offence. The court heard the petitioner and disposed of the petition in May-end. But at the same time it referred the matter to the Ministry for its opinion and further examination. Now, the Ministry officials, guided by their political bosses, are coming round to the idea that there could be a detailed probe into the matter which would look into the foreign funding of this group and its individuals. The Ministry is expected to return to the court when the matter comes up for hearing and suggest that there be a thorough probe. It has not yet been decided which agency would spearhead the investigation. It is obvious that the government is not so inclined to let Team Anna members off the hook easily. It knows that the probe would be a way to keep these agitators, on their toes. A decision has been taken at the highest level to take this particular reference by the Delhi HC seriously. According to the petitioner, Team Anna had itself admitted in a detailed interview on August 23, 2011, that they had received funds to send bulk SMSes, distribute t-shirts, caps and flags. By Team Anna’s own admission, the funds came from Ford Foundation (Rs86,61,742), Participatory Research in Asia (Rs 2,37,035), Manjunath Shanmugam Trust (Rs3.7 lakh), Dutch Embassy (Rs 19,61,968), Association for India’s Development (Rs15 lakh), India’s Friends Association (Rs 7,86,500), United Nation Development Programme (Rs12,52,742) and individual sources (Rs 11,35,857). Earlier, Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi had accused US-based groups of backing the movement led by Anna Hazare. Seeking to draw a link between US money and Team Anna, Ravi had suggested it was more than a coincidence that Hazare and his two associates - Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal - were Magsaysay award winners. http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/NAT-TOP-upa-finds-a-foreign-way-to-fix-anna-co-3637721.html ... ...