Home Blog Page 6205

Pakistan’s radical Islamist Zaid Hamid uses tweets by Barkha Dutt to demonize India and fear monger about ‘build up in Kargil’

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Pakistan’s radical Islamist Zaid Hamid uses tweets by Barkha Dutt to demonize India and fear monger about ‘build up in Kargil’

Whenever India-Pakistan conflict comes to limelight, some statements of Indian left-liberal chatterati are always used by Pakistan to propagate its propaganda. In a repeat of such situation, now Pakistanis are using comments and analysis of Indian secular journalists to attack India, when panic had gripped Pakistan and political parties and separatists in Jammu and Kashmir over the rapid deployment of additional forces in the state by the Indian government.

Zaid Hamid, a Pakistan based radical Islamist, today used tweets of controversial journalist Barkha Dutt to claim that India is trying to expand the conflict along the entire LOC and to try capture strategic regions inside Pakistan. He speculated that a massive crackdown in Kashmir will follow an attack on Pakistan. He lamented Pakistan, its government and media are not ready for this.


Zaid Hamid made this analysis based on a series of tweets posted by Barkha Dutt. When Congress was in power, journalists like Barkha Dutt had direct insider information from the government, which has stopped now after the Modi government came to power. This has left her and many others speculating and wondering what is happening in J&K, as govt is sharing information only on a need to know basis.

Barkha Dutt said she believes that internal issues, like the increased terror threat in the state, particularly on Amarnath Yatra, and the speculation that Article 35A will be repealed, are absolute red herrings, and the reasons of India’s quick action in the state are external. The former NDTV editor had claimed that the current happenings in Jammu and Kashmir are linked with US President Donald Trump’s offer of meditation and the latest situation in Afghanistan. She said that instead of looking at the situation from the prism of Srinagar, one should look at what is happening in the Kargil-Ladakh area, along with Poonch Rajouri at the other end.

The Radia tape famed journalist said that if the government’s move was related to Article 35A, they would have waited till the end of Amarnath Yatra. Therefore, the Indian government is reacting to something which is already in play or pre-empting something they may be coming, which she speculated to be related to Afghanistan, Trump, Pakistan, China. She meant that she does not believe the government version that the government’s moves are due to increased terror threat in the state.

This tweets by Barkha Dutt provided enough ammunition to Zaid Hamid to claim that India is mobilising troops in Kargil too, a clear indication of aggression against Pakistan. He, with most people in Pakistan, is already claiming that India’s military build-up in the valley is to attack Pakistan occupied Kashmir, and not to control terror activities in the Indian side of the border.


The tweets of Barkha Dutt came as a golden opportunity to present as proof of his claim, which Hamid readily used.

It may be noted that Barkha Dutt had also said that India’s mobilisation may be due to the expected rise of the Taliban after the US withdraws from Afghanistan. She had tweeted that threat assessment is external, from possible Taliban attacks probably enabled by China. This version is actually in the line of Indian government’s version, as it says that there is increased threat perception from terrorists across the border. But Zaid Hamid chooses to ignore those comments by her, as it does not suit his propaganda.


It is important to note that the Indian government never said that Article 35A was the reason behind military build-up and cancellation of Amarnath Yatra. It was entirely a media speculation. Therefore, to call is red herring is completely misleading.

Barkha Dutt’s theory of increased threat from Taliban partially matches with government’s explanation of increased threat perception, therefore there is no reason for her to claim that government used any red herring to explain its actions.

Unnao collision: Truck owner says number plate blackened due to unpaid EMIs, finance company says no instalment pending

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Unnao collision: Truck owner says number plate blackened due to unpaid EMIs, finance company says no instalment pending

As the Unnao rape victim continues to struggle for life in hospital, the truck that was involved in the accident of her vehicle has come under scanner as one claim of the truck owner has been refuted. The overspeeding truck had hit the vehicle which had caused the death of two aunts of the victim, while the victim and her lawyer sustained grievous injuries. It was found that the number plate of the truck was blackened with grease.

Soon after the incident, the driver and the cleaner of the truck were arrested, and later truck owner Devender Kishore Pal was also taken into custody. Pal had said to the police that the number of the truck blackened because he wanted to evade the agents of his lenders as he had not paid the EMIs for the loan taken for the truck. He had said that the had missed a few instalments of his loan, and feared that the finance company will seize truck.

But the finance company has contradicted the version of Pal, saying that there was no question of seizing the truck as no EMI was pending on the loan. Talking to media, a manager of Orix finance company has revealed that Devender Pal was never threatened about payment of instalments. He said that Devender is an old customer of the Japan-based finance company who has been paying the instalments regularly. Although few instalments were skipped, they were paid later. He also added that the company has never seized any vehicle plying on the road, and therefore there must be other reason for blackening the number plate of Devender’s truck, the manager said.

It may be noted that the CCTV footage of the toll plaza at Lalganj in Rae Bareli also questions the version of the truck owner. The CCTV footage shows that when the truck had entered the toll plaza, its number plate was clean and it was not yet blackened, and the registration number was clearly visible. This means grease was smeared on the number plate after the truck had exited the toll plaza, if the number was hidden to avoid finance company agents, it should have been hidden all along.

On 28 July, when the victim of Unnao rape was travelling to Rae Bareli with her two aunts and her lawyer Mahendra Singh, their vehicle was hit by Devender Kishore Pal’s truck, which had killed the two aunts, while other two persons were seriously injured. BJP MLA from Unnao Kuldeep Singh Sengar is named as one of the accused in the case in the chargesheet filed by CBI. He is in jail since last after he was arrested by CBI. After the accident, a murder case was also filed against him, and Sengar was expelled by BJP from the party. The accident case also has been handed over to the CBI by the Supreme Court.

After refusing to accept dead bodies of their soldiers, Imran Khan claims India is ‘attacking innocent civilians’, begs UNSC to take note

OpIndia Staff
-
0
After refusing to accept dead bodies of their soldiers, Imran Khan claims India is ‘attacking innocent civilians’, begs UNSC to take note

Parody Nation Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan today took to Twitter to claim that India has violated international humanitarian laws by “attacking innocent civilians” across the Line of Control near Jammu and Kashmir.

He has pleaded the United Nations Security Councils to take note of this situation.

“I condemn India’s attack across LOC on innocent civilians & it’s use of cluster munitions in violation of int humanitarian law and it’s own commitments under the 1983 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. UNSC must take note of this international threat to peace & security,” Imran Khan said in a tweet.


The statement came in the wake of the Indian Army foiling the attacks by the Pakistan army’s Border Action Team (BAT) on forwarding post in Keran sector of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, killing at least five to seven Pakistani intruders.

After a successful operation, the Indian Army had offered Pakistan Army to take over the dead bodies of their five to seven Pakistan BAT army soldiers and terrorists. However, Pakistan denying the claims had refused to accept the dead bodies of their soldiers.

Pakistan Army spokesman Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor on Saturday night denied the Indian claim as “mere propaganda” and said that India was “trying to divert the attention of the world form the situation of Kashmir.”

Similarly, the Foreign Office also issued a statement at about mid-night to reject the claims by India. “We reject Indian allegations of cross-LOC action by Pakistan and possession of bodies,” FO said.

Pakistan PM in his Tweet, pretending to be the torch-bearer of peace and amity, which is ironic as it is his country which has been sheltering and harbouring terrorists and terrorism for an endless time now, reiterated that the only way to ‘end the long night of suffering for the people of Occupied Kashmir’ is to let the US mediate.

“President Trump offered to mediate on Kashmir. This is the time to do so as the situation deteriorates there and along the LOC with new aggressive actions being taken by Indian occupation forces. This has the potential to blow up into a regional crisis,” Imran Khan said.

Last month, during Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s maiden visit to the US as head of state, US President Trump had stirred up a storm when he claimed that PM Modi had requested him to meditate on the Kashmir issue. Trump was, however, called out for his lies after India had clarified that no such request was made.

Trump again, at the beginning of this month offered to intervene on the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan. This time too, India asserted that any talks on the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan will only be bilateral.

Abandoning parents and dumping them in old age homes is one of the worst crimes children can commit

Guest Author
-
0
Abandoning parents and dumping them in old age homes is one of the worst crimes children can commit

My grandmother passed away three years ago due to cancer and medical negligence, which is pretty common in small towns. The doctor was treating her for gastric issues for three to four years and later we came to know it was stage four stomach cancer. On the day the reports came, the doctor said she will live maximum for 3 months more but she managed to live for 14 months after that. Her death was painful for obvious reasons and she passed away in pain, the image which I can never delete from my mind.

Since her death, every year on her ‘barsi’, my family donates food and stationery to handicapped kids and as I stay far away from my hometown, I donate to ‘Gaushala’ or a meal to a poor person. Like every year, this day was little heavy for me as all my family groups were flooding with images of my grandma and it brought back all the memories of her. To avoid the flux of emotions, I switched to Twitter, my go-to escape and there I saw this video:


This video completely broke me. I was crying like anything because I felt the helplessness of those old people mentioned in the video. I could imagine the pain they must be going through in their lives. Thanks to this video, I decided to donate in an old age home today rather than ‘Gaushala’ (as I keep donating there regularly). I searched for old age homes near to my location in justdial, and called up the first one. The lady over the phone told me they need groceries and medicines. I asked her to WhatsApp me the list, I will try to manage whatever I can. I purchased around 50% of items she mentioned in the list and bought some medicines (cough syrups and paracetamols) and reached to this ‘Manuski Old Age home’ in Lohegaon area of Pune.

Upon entering the premises, the lady thanked me a lot for randomly calling her and bringing groceries as it is very difficult for them to sustain. I went inside the hall and saw around 4 aged people sitting/lying on their respective beds. Two of them had urobag attached to them, one grandma, who had lost her eyesight last year was trying to listen to television by staring off the wall and another grandma was just sitting idle in her thoughts. I peeped into the other room and saw four more beds on which three aged ladies were asleep. Once again, I was into tears. I couldn’t control my emotions seeing such “slow-time waiting for death” environment. I was lost and suddenly the nurse there tapped me and said “You should talk to them”.

I sat down with one grandma, she said “I am here for a year now and will stay here till my death as my son doesn’t love me anymore. I had four kids, three of them passed away in an accident and the fourth son refused to keep me. I get a pension on my husband’s name, I donate all to this house and they keep me very lovingly and takes care of me. I enjoy here.” She then showed me pictures of her kids and her dog whom she adopted when he was just six days old and he lived with her for 14 years. Then the nurse said, you know she sings very well, and then she sang a song for all of us.

After the song, she pointed towards another grandma who was sitting there lost in her thoughts and said, “Look at her, always sleepy. She is elder to me but I keep her as my daughter because she has a memory problem”

I went to her and touched her feet. She asked me to sit down. I asked her “Dadi! Where do you belong?” She said, “Nearby, Khadki area of Pune. My son went on a leave with his family so he dropped me here for some weeks. My man passed away five years ago, his pension comes to my account now. He was a tank mechanic in 512 Pune (some cantonment area). My only son got four male kid, who all are married and one has a six-year-old kid as well”. Then she asked me about my marital status, I said: “Dadiji I am getting married soon”. She said, “No matter what, never stop your wife from working or studying if she wants to. She should be independent without your presence”. She added, “Always do ram-bhakti if you want to get success in life. I always prayed to Ram and that’s why he gave me four grandsons”.

I tried to talk to the aged uncle sitting there with attached urobag. He just said, “My daughter in law doesn’t like me, that is why I am here”. He didn’t talk any further.

I was there for good 60-70 minutes. The lady told me they all just woke up for tea and supper. Now they will have dinner at around 8-8:30 and will go to sleep by 10-10:30 pm. They wake up by 5am to do some pooja and walk around the premises.

Author at the Manuski Old Age home in Pune

Families are becoming more and more nuclear today. Our parents stayed in the same city as of their parents but now most of us are settled outside and away from our homes. Today my grandfather is 78, and he stays with my Dad who is 52. But I at the age of 26 is already settled away from hometown and my brother in another city. I don’t know what will be the future when I will turn 52 and my Mom-Dad will cross the 70s. Today after visiting this Old Age home, I have realised no matter what, I should be taking care of my parents with all means I could. There shouldn’t be any excuse when it comes to taking care of them in their old age. I can see everything but cannot see my parents rotting away in some old age home in their last days. Nothing comes before and above them. My dad taking care of my grandad is an example from which I got to learn and in future, my kids will learn the same.

While taking care of our parents, we all be should be donating some amount of such old age homes. Your one-time spending in a Starbucks cafe can provide 10 days of ration for an aged person in such homes. Just search on google about nearby ‘Old age homes’ and visit. They have no one to talk to, they feel elated when you listen to their stories.

 

Chirag Barjatya is a Cinematographer, Blogger and Certified Nutrition Coach, he tweets at @chiragbarjatyaa

Mehbooba Mufti gets a notice from Anti Corruption Bureau over Jammu and Kashmir Bank appointment case, plays victim

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Mehbooba Mufti gets a notice from Anti Corruption Bureau over Jammu and Kashmir Bank appointment case, plays victim

The Anti Corruption Bureau has sent a notice to the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti over the case of appointments in Jammu and Kashmir Bank.

Notice received by Mehbooba Mufti

The Anti Corruption Bureau notice to Mehbooba Mufti says that during the course of the investigation, it has emerged that few appointments in the Jammu and Kashmir Bank case were made on the recommendation of few ministers.

The notice asks Mehbooba Mufti to clarify whether such references had her endorsement, verbal or otherwise.

Mehbooba Mufti on her part proceeded to play the victim. She tweeted, “Not surprised to receive a letter from the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Concerted efforts are being made to browbeat mainstream leaders & thwart potential efforts for a collective response. I am too small an entity vis a vis the cause that unites us today. Such tactics won’t work”.


Mehbooba Mufti essentially proceeded to call herself a mainstream leader and insinuate that this was an intimidatory tactic by the Modi government. Also, in a rather petulent response, she said she was too small an entity vis a vis “the case” that unites all leaders today. She did not elaborate what that “cause” was.

In June this year, the J&K governor’s administration had sacked J&K Bank chairman Parvez Ahmad Negroo over wide-spread irregularities and corruption under his nose, following which the ACB sleuths conducted raids on the corporate office of the bank on TRC Road, Srinagar.

Fearful of arrest after Triple Talaq bill passed, Muslim man returns to wife after 8 months

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Fearful of arrest after Triple Talaq bill passed, Muslim man returns to wife after 8 months

The effect of newly enacted Triple Talaq law is already being reflected in the society as a Muslim man named Mohammad Ali has returned to his wife fearing arrest after the historic Triple Talaq bill became a law making the illegal divorce a punishable offence.

According to the reports, Nasima, who lives in Saharanpur, was married on 22 April 2015 to a person named Mohammed Ali. After their marriage, Mohammad Ali began to harass her demanding dowry. In addition to that, Mohammad Ali also allegedly had an affair with another woman in Uttarakhand.

About 14 months ago, Nasima was constantly abused and threatened by Mohammad Ali and his parents demanding dowry. As Nasima’s parents did not provide him with the money, Ali threatened to divorce her and drove her out of the house in January this year. For the last eight months, Nasima has been living in her maternal home in Saharanpur. The couple has twin children.

Nasima had even sought the help of the police and demanded action against her husband’s family. She had even registered a complaint against six people including her husband and her in-laws with Saharanpur SSP.

Incidentally, the Narendra Modi government passed the historic Triple Talaq bill in the Parliament. As the bill came into effect and made triple talaq a criminal offence with three years of imprisonment, Mohammad Ali and his family has now promptly returned back to Saharanpur to bring her wife and his twin children back to their house in Dehradun. Interestingly, Nasima’s father-in-law has now promised to present a 750 square feet plot to her.

Speaking to the media, Nasima thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for passing the Triple Talaq bill. She added that although her husband did not give her illegal ‘Triple Talaq’, but the fear of arrest made him return to her and her children.

The historic triple talaq bill passed by Narendra Modi led NDA government makes a declaration of talaq-e-biddat in spoken, written or through SMS or WhatsApp or any other electronic chat illegal. Talaq-e-biddat refers to the pronouncement of talaq three times by a Muslim man in one sitting to his wife resulting in an instant and irrevocable divorce.

The triple talaq bill also makes a declaration of talaq-e-biddat cognisable offence that gives a police officer powers to arrest the offender without requiring a warrant. A Muslim man pronouncing instant triple talaq attracts a jail term of three years under the triple talaq bill. The accused under the triple talaq bill is entitled to bail, which can be granted by a magistrate. But the bail can be granted only after the magistrate has heard the aggrieved woman.

After virtue-signalling with Zomato, Uber fails to help woman passenger stuck with abusive driver

OpIndia Staff
-
0
After virtue-signalling with Zomato, Uber fails to help woman passenger stuck with abusive driver

A female passenger named Aparna Balachander took to Twitter to narrate her horrific experience with a Uber cab on the night of August 3. She describes how despite making repeated calls and sending messages to uber customer care, Uber failed to help the woman in despair.


It’s ironic that a brand like Uber, who had recently come out to express its support and solidarity with Zomato, fails to help a woman stuck with one of its own abusive drivers.

During a recent incident, wherein Zomato, in an effort to grandstand had tweeted that ‘food has no religion’ after a Twitter user called Amit Shukla had announced that he did not want a ‘non-Hindu’ deliveryman since it was the month of Shravan and it went against his faith. It had created a quite a storm, and Uber Eats, the food delivery arm of Uber, had further fuelled the controversy by expressing its support for Zomato.

Aparna had booked her Uber Taxi from Kodhiali to Langford gardens in Bangaluru. She narrates that she got into her cab after dinner with her colleagues. She recollects that after she got into the cab she heard the cab driver speaking to his friend saying that the customer was ‘very bad’. Suddenly, he turned towards Aparna and told her that she should leave work before 7 pm and not go out drinking with colleagues.

Finding his interference unnecessary, Aparna asked the Uber driver to mind his own business. Irked with this, the driver started abusing the lady. Calling her a “slut” he furthered that she “cannot even be like his keep who cleans his shoes”.

At this point of time, the Uber driver started slowing down his car. Scared of all this Aparna used the “safety” button present in the cab.

All Uber Cabs have this so-called “safety buttons” which the customers can use to get in touch with the Uber customer care during an emergency.

However, Aparna recounts that after pressing the “safety button” the customer care instead of calling her up shockingly, called up the Uber driver, who in turn complained to the customer care that the passenger was extremely drunk.

Aparna started screaming so that her voice could be heard over the phone. Ultimately when she got to speak to the customer care official she was instructed to get down of the cab with an assurance that she would be booked on to another cab immediately.

Meanwhile, the cab driver threatened Aparna by saying things like “I’ll tear off your clothes if you don’t leave the cab now,” wrote Aparna. She was forced to get off the cab at 11.15 pm and after waiting for 15 mins and desperately sending messages to Uber customer care, no cab arrived. She had to ultimately call her friend to her rescue.

By sharing her terrifying experience Aparna wanted to apprise everyone of Uber’s callousness towards its customers.

This is, however, not the first time Uber has chosen to remain indifferent and muted. Uber had earlier too remained mum when ‘liberals’ had attacked the brand for one taxi sporting an ‘angry Hanuman’ sticker.

Update: Uber has responded to the story. Their spokesperson said, “What has been described is unacceptable and violates our community guidelines. We have been in touch with the rider and driver partner’s access to the app has been suspended until further investigation”. 

Disgruntled AAP leader Alka Lamba to resign from primary membership of the party, will continue as Chandni Chowk MLA

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Disgruntled AAP leader Alka Lamba to resign from primary membership of the party, will continue as Chandni Chowk MLA

Alka Lamba, the Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Chandni Chowk, announced on Sunday that she will resign from the Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party. However, she said she will continue to be a member of the Delhi Legislative Assembly, reports ANI. She informed that she will submmit her written resignation from primary membership of the party soon.

“I thought I should talk to people and take a decision. It has been decided that I should break all ties with Aam Aadmi Party and resign from its primary membership. I’ll tender my resignation from the primary membership of AAP, soon in writing. I will continue to be an MLA,” said Alka Lamba.

On August 1, disgruntled AAP MLA Alka Lamba had hinted at leaving the party after she had said that she made up her mind to quit the party and is mulling contesting the upcoming Delhi assembly elections as an independent candidate.

“I am not called to meetings. I am insulted repeatedly. I spent 20 years in the Congress and even there I struggled with family politics but in the AAP I do not get the basic respect,” she had claimed.

Last week, Alka Lamba had made a stunning claim that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been taking revenge against her by hampering the CCTV installation work being carried out by her in the constituency. In a series of tweets, Chandni Chowk MLA Lamba had accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of interfering the developmental activities of the work as revenge for speaking out against him in the past.

The rift between Alka Lamba and Aam Aadmi Party began after Alka Lamba had expressed her displeasure with the AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal. A few months back, Lamba had bemoaned that the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had unfollowed her on Twitter and that she was unceremoniously removed from the official Whatsapp group.

Recently, Alka Lamba had lamented on Twitter accusing Arvind Kejriwal and his party of deliberately ignoring her. Lamba had conveyed her disappointment for not being invited for the laying of the foundation stone for one of the projects in her constituency of Chandni Chowk in Delhi.

Before that, in December last year, MLA Alka Lamba was reportedly asked to resign from the Aam Aadmi Party over a resolution that was presented in the Delhi Assembly on December 21. Alka Lamba had said that she had protested against an alleged proposal to revoke Bharat Ratna awarded to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Alka Lamba had started her political career with the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress party, and was elected as the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) president. Subsequently she had joined the Congress party. She was included in the AICC and appointed as General Secretary of Delhi Congress in 2006. In 2014 she had left the Congress party to join the Aam Aadmi Party.

Operation Kashmir: Officials in Kargil asked not to leave their stations and keep their mobile phones off

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Operation Kashmir: Officials in Kargil asked not to leave their stations and keep their mobile phones off

The Jammu and Kashmir Government has issued an advisory asking the support staff of the Jammu & Kashmir cricket team, including cricketer Irfan Pathan and coach Milap Mewada, to leave the state as soon as possible.


“Yes, the JKCA has advised Pathan and other support staff to leave J&K. They will fly out of the Valley on Sunday. Selectors, who are not from the region, have also been asked to leave for their respective places,” JKCA chief executive officer (CEO) Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari told The New Indian Express.

Officials in Kargil, namely district officers, Sub-Divisional magistrates, Tehsildars and other sectoral officers, also have been asked not to leave their stations and have been directed to keep their phones switched on at all times. The advisory comes after the Amarnath Yatra was curtailed by the NDA government at the Center citing security reasons in the state. Tourists have also been directed to leave at the earliest.

The situation in the Valley is tense after the Indian Army detected a Pakistan-backed attempt to attack the Amarnath Yatra. Soon after, an infiltration bid by Pakistani military personnel was foiled by the Army. Multiple Pakistani soldiers died in their failed attempt.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah met NSA Ajit Doval and other senior security officials. A crucial cabinet meet is also slated to occur tomorrow as circumstances continue to remain tense.

Ravish Kumar, Magsaysay award and connecting the dots: The history of Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Ashish Shukla
-
0
Ravish Kumar, Magsaysay award and connecting the dots: The history of Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Ravish Kumar has won Magsaysay Awards as once did Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal and Admiral Ramdas. The common thread is community service and any inference to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is incidental.

The award was established by New York-based Rockefeller Brothers Fund in the memory of Philippines President Ramon Magsaysay who died in a plane crash in 1957. In 2000, Ford Foundation did its bid by constituting the Ramon Magsaysay Emergent Leadership Award. Ramon Magsaysay was specifically groomed by the CIA to become the president of of Philippines, to prevent rise of communism in the nation during the cold war era. In fact, Magsaysay was known as an “America’s boy” by the CIA handler assigned to him.

It is in the interest of Indian citizens to know the background of Rockefeller and Ford Foundations.

In the early 20th century, the United States legalized endowed foundations. They were the new lifeguards of Imperialism, or call it Capitalism, under threat from Communism. Among the first to be set up was Carnegie Corporation, endowed in 1911 by profits from Carnegie Steel Company. The Rockefeller Foundation was endowed in 1914 by JD Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil Company.

Rockefeller Foundation was the early patron which gave seed money to the United Nations, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). These Foundations had massive resources, all tax-free, with an unrestrained brief:  to turn economic muscle into political, cultural and social capital. Massive funds were not there to raise the wages of its workers. It was to turn money into power—to run the world. (So we have Bill Gates controlling health, education and agricultural policies all over the world from the seemingly dull occupation of selling software).

By the 1920s, the US had begun to swoop on overseas markets and its raw materials. In 1924, the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations had created the most powerful foreign policy pressure group—the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), later funded by the Ford Foundation as well.  So far CFR has had two dozen US secretaries of state on its roll. No less than 5 CFR members were in the 1943 steering committee that planned the UN. JD Rockefeller bought the land for UN’s New York headquarters at $8.5 million grant.

Then came the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement to set up a new international monetary system. Now all other currencies were pegged to the value of the US dollar, which, in turn, was pegged to the price of gold. World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) became the checkpoints of world’s financial roadways. They demanded Good Governance (with remote in their hands), Rule of Law (as long as they shaped them) and transparent institutions. Ironically, these rules were mandated by two of the most opaque, unaccountable and non-transparent global organizations.  Country after country was cracked open by World Bank for global finance.

The Ford Foundation came into being in 1936. It works in lockstep with the US State Department. It is in complete harmony with Bretton Woods philosophy of standardizing business practices and promoting the free market. The Capitalist Order is dressed up in liberal ethos.

It’s with these lenses you need to view the activity of Ford Foundation which has invested tens of millions of dollars in India. Generous aids are given to specific university courses and scholarships. A lot of these funds go to writers, artists, film-makers and activists.

These Foundations have made it an art to putting their pieces on the chessboard of a society. Elite clubs and think-tanks are formed. Ford Foundation makes no secret of intervening in grassroots political movements as its avowed “goals for the future of mankind.”

It would do us no harm though to remember that Kejriwal-Sisodia have publicly conceded to generous grants by Ford Foundation to their NGO in the past. Captain Amrinder Singh had openly accused that Kejriwal’s NGO was funded by CIA.

By the 1950s, the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations were in overdrive in funding NGOs and educational institutions around the world. They were the hidden arm of the US government to topple democratically-elected governments in Latin America, Iran and Indonesia. The Indonesian students, trained in counter-insurgency by the US army, played a critical role in effecting CIA-backed coup in Indonesia in 1965 that brought General Suharto to power. Similarly, eight years later, young Chilean students were trained at the University of Chicago (endowed by JD Rockefeller) to do their bit in the CIA-backed coup that killed Salvador Allende and brought General Pinochet and his reign of murders that lasted 17 years.

Please reflect why India’s corporate media proclaimed him to be the “voice of the people.” Whether the rage against scams was intended to wither away the powers of government and give levers to privatization?

Or for example, how come urban Gender champions and their feminist movements never have a word to say for a lakh-strong Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sangathan (Revolutionary Adivasi Women’s Association)? Are they afraid of standing up to mining corporations? Is this Capitalism and its ugly face which is covered under Liberal ethos, pushed by these Foundations?

These Foundations core philosophy is to prepare an international cadre which could extend Capitalism and the hegemony of the United States. Find natives who once served colonialism and would now do for them. Take over the fields of education, arts and entertainment; extend a hold on the minds of masses. What if it costs millions of dollars? Money is useless if it can’t buy global power.

Magsaysay Award to Ravish Kumar is another piece in this chessboard. A brand has been created as a bulwark against India’s cultural resurgence.

1...6,2046,2056,206...7,664Page 6,205 of 7,664