People are well aware of the activities of charities they donate to. Most of the donations to these charities come from NRI's who in my experience are usually right wing and anti Indian minorities. Their kids turn out to be liberals though maybe because they are themselves a minority in their parents adopted land.

I used to be an Asha volunteer. I quit on account of excessive tilt towards very silly 'leftist' politics (I am left of center myself) by Asha. By 'silly', I refer to making a lot of noise and resort to rhetoric, none of which is productive. A lot of Asha's projects are very poorly run.

It's the same with AID. There are a lot of well-meaning apolitical volunteers, but the political volunteers give them a bad name. These are often people very influential in the orgnazition. Balaji Sampath is a very political person, but someone I would give money to, because I trust his integrity. Sandeep Pandey is a fraud - he's your typical headline-seeking politican.

Pratham is also left of center, but I trust their integrity, competency and efficiency.

I forgot to add: IDRF is very clearly a right-wing organization. You'd know at once if you attend any of their functions.

Anonymous:

I'm surprised by your characterization of Asha as leftist. I suspect that the various chapters differ greatly in character. The local chapter of Asha is extremely apolitical and is very careful to keep itself that way.

Also: are you implying that the fact that Asha's projects are poorly run (I'm not in a position to judge really) has something to do with their (alleged) leftist politics ?

I'd be very interested in hearing more concrete examples of how politics interferes in the effectiveness of these organizations.

Sincerely,
ashvin

It is possible that some chapters are apolitical. I know that at the central level, there is a deliberate attempt to cover up political activity. I have found Asha spokespeople to be like political spin-doctors - completely lacking in honesty, transperancy and accounatbility.

Also: are you implying that the fact that Asha's projects are poorly run (I'm not in a position to judge really) has something to do with their (alleged) leftist politics ?

Yes. My opinion was that Asha's projects were being poorly run because people concentrated their energies on politics and rhetoric instead of basic education.

http://www.ashanet.org/india/peace.htm

Here is a sample. Why is an (allegedly) apolitical organization (allegedly) dedicated to basic education mucking around in a very divisive political cesspool?

I posed this question to Asha. Among the many answers I have received from representatives are:

1. Stout denial. They deny that this has anything to do with Asha. This had me speechless.

2. Justification on the grounds of its 'socio-economic' relevance.

3. Justification on the grounds of 'peace'. The argument is thus:
a. No education without peace.
b. No peace without repudiation of 'temple movement'.

4. I asked if this didn't violate their claims of being apolitical. They asked me to go read their constitution, which clearly mentions that they are apolitical. Apparently, since it is mentioned in the contitution that they are apolitical, I was just being a silly ass in questioning them. They also called me a Hindu fundamentalist when I expressed the opinion that they were no better than IDRF.

There's an (alleged) school founded by Pandey in Lalpur that got much publicity when he got the Magsaysay. This school has been mostly disfunctional with absenteeism by its teachers and Pandey. I do not know the state of the school when Pandey was awarded the Magsaysay. My guess is that the school was virtually closed. I have tried to find out the state of the school. I have not succeeded.

I will be happy to tell more if anybody is interested.

Anonymous, thanks for your comments. I'd be interested in hearing more.

A couple of brief thoughts:
1. I think the mixed responses you heard from them is a reflection of their decentralized structure.

2. I found this statement on their website in which they try to delineate what Sandeep Pandey does as a part of Asha, and what he does on his own : http://www.ashanet.org/pandey/clarification.html.
Some relevant excerpts :

Dr. Pandey, a Gandhian in his ways, is a grass-roots activist who is involved in many activities that are beyond the scope of Asha for Education, such as, globalization and nuclear disarmament. Most of his campaign level activities and political stands are due to his involvement with forums like Sarva Sewa Sangha (a national network of Gandhian organizations), National Alliance for People's Movements (NAPM), and Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace. No part of these activities are funded by Asha for Education.

Asha does not have any political or religious affiliations, neither does it endorse or support any political or religious activities. Asha supports educational activities that promote communal harmony.

Asha is a non-hierarchical organization, with its mission and activities decided by its volunteers collectively, instead of by any single volunteer. Individual volunteer opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of Asha for Education, our supporters, donors or project-partners.

3. Deciding what is a political issue and what is not is not always obvious. For that matter, even deciding to fund a private educational project might be seen as a political decision in that one is rejecting the role of the government in education (a leftist[?] view), and not waiting for "the market" to solve the problem (a libertarian [?] view). I guess they've made the judgement that "promoting communal harmony" is something that enough people across the political spectrum, can agree on (I can see how many might think otherwise).

4. In my (albeit limited) experience of hearing project reports from the local chapter of Asha, I've not encountered political views brought up in the decision making process. The decisions they make are more on the lines of "how much money do we give them to buy school uniforms/books/chairs/tables etc". And there are follow up reports on how the money has been spent. I'm under the impression that this is how most of their chapters operate.

That's my two paisa's-worth,
ashvin

Ashvin, I have to say that your style of quoting 'generalities' from Asha's numerous disclaimers while evading very *specific* contradictions that I point out are very much in keeping with Asha's 'style' of (alleged) discourse that I am very familiar with. I'll bet you're a seasoned Ashaite and have said before what you just said, or at least, are very familiar with the arguments Asha's PR department specialize in.

Virtually anything can be given spin. So going to war can be spun into fighting for peace. Mucking around in politics can be spun into fighting for communal harmony (like how Lallu Yadav is the last bastion of secularism). 'Matching donations' can be twisted into meaning something else. Oh dear, we forgot to read the fine print - such a terrible misunderstanding. IDRF has its own spin on allegations against it. They are exactly as convincing as your spin and in fact, in many ways absolutely identical to yours. The fact of the matter is that IDRF is right-wing and Asha is left-wing and I give my hard-earned money to neither.

Anonymous :

I'll bet you're a seasoned Ashaite and have said before what you just said, or at least, are very familiar with the arguments Asha's PR department specialize in.

I can assure you that it's not the case: like you I've been an occassional volunteer, I've been to a handful of meetings, and ok I ran a marathon to raise money for them. I wouldn't call myself a seasoned Ashaite and have never heard, and certainly not had to defend, allegations of their politicism before. Actually the first time I heard Asha being accused of being a left-wing organization was a couple of weeks ago in comments on this blog, and it was surprising to me as I know how careful the people in the local chapter are not to be politically divisive.

Ashvin, I have to say that your style of quoting 'generalities' from Asha's numerous disclaimers while evading very *specific* contradictions that I point out are very much in keeping with Asha's 'style' of (alleged) discourse that I am very familiar with.

Ok, again as before I speak ("spin", if you like) only for myself here. In my previous comment I was not trying to refute your allegation... merely try to see it from Asha's point of view. You alleged that while Asha claims to be apolitical it engages in political activity like Peace Marches and activities to 'promote communal harmony'. All I said in response to that was that Asha has probably made a judgement that those activities find enough support across the political spectrum and are therefore not sufficiently politically divisive to warrant non-support. I was not actually trying to argue if it could be classified as 'mucking around in politics' or not. (I personally don't find those activities objectionable: but that's not relevant)

It appears you have other complaints as well about 'Matching donations' etc. And again, that's the first I've heard of that. If those allegations of willful financial mismanagement are true I'd be concerned as well. But from my experience of your accusations against me, i suspect you're attributing deceit to Asha when it probably was a relatively innocent overlook. After all, Asha's made up of grad-student volunteers who do this in their spare time. But i don't think i can change your mind so i won't try.

Cheers,
ashvin

No, the matching donations was a reference to something else - to AID and sulekha.com. But if you're so distant from Asha, why are you "trying to change my mind"? You should be seeking information to make up your own mind, no? But let me give you a broader perspective:

In the the middle of the BJP's term, 'leftist' politics became popular among young people like yourself. Arundhati Roy was writing impassioned essays in defence of the 'writer-activist'. Among the leadership of Asha, there was a very open push towards political activism. (Asha's President was a member of the Forum of Indian Leftists). There was informal talk about amending Asha's constitution. This was all very open. At this point, I quit Asha.

Then the leftist brigade trained its guns on IDRF attacking its right-wing leanings. (A lot of the accusations, I found hokey and overblown, but some of it was right on the mark.) At around the same time, Pandey was awarded the Magsaysay (quite undeservedly, in my opinion). In the glare of his new found fame, Pandey made some political remarks about (alleged) Indian terrorist operations in Pakistan and American 'terrorism'. Asha received a flood of protest letters and it realized that it was suddenly vulnerable to the same kind of accusations that were directed at IDRF, substituting 'leftist' for 'rightist'.

At this, Asha retreated somewhat. The first clarification it put out defended Pandey, saying that Pandey was being quoted out of context. This was obviously inadequate, so in a few days, they put out another disclaimer - the one you quoted to me.

I am very aware that a large number of Asha volunteers are well-meaning, earnest and idealistic grad students and professionals. That's the reason I did not hand over 'incriminating' evidence about Asha to its right-wing critics. (I loathe professional rightists as much as professional leftists). I do think Asha has a culture of not doing enough introspection.

As a donor, I make certain assumptions when you tell me that you're apolitical. I am a customer in that sense. If what the common donor understands by 'apolitical' is very much different from what Asha understands by 'apolitical', then the common donor is being cheated. If you don't address my concerns as a donor, but instead try to evade responsibilty through vague speculations, you begin to cross over to the area of wilful deceit. After a point, I stop giving you the benefit of doubt.

Anonymous please dont try to defame Asha - no president of asha has been FOIL member! this is a white lie and that is precisely why u could not name him/her!!!!

So if I understand the above:

a) ASHA is run by communist thugs
b) AID is clearly Marxist-Leninist-Naxalite terrorists conning a bunch of U. Maryland and U. Cincinnati dummies
c) You have zilch "evidence" of any sort against IDRF, Sewa etc.

d) So you are fat and happy concluding that "ASHA is as bad as IDRF".

Figures, Comrades! Inquilab Zindabad! Long may the FOIL liars continue to entertain us. By the way, who appointed Rat Ravishankar a *****Dog, I wonder? Is he related to ME?

By the way, I hear ASHA and AID websites and websites documenting the "charitable activities" of the same, are getting a lot of hits from IP addresses such as ***.DHS.**.gov, and *****.IRS.gov

Off we go, off we go,
A-singing and yelling to sunny Guantanamo!

http://www.india-forum.com/Columns/Narayanan_Komerath/The_Lashkar-e-Pinocchio_Rides_Again/26/

The Lashkar-e-Pinocchio Rides Again

Friday, 18 February 2005
“The Wild Bunch -- They’re only a hundred. But they ride -- as if they were a T-H-O-U-S-A-N-D![1]

Mr. Prem Panicker [2] wonders at General “Pinocchio” Pervez’s energy in, well, whatever Pinocchio used to do. Unfair. He ignores the General’s tireless camp followers. I dedicate this article to those followers who toil, unlike the Atta crew, with no expectation of the rewards of Houristan. Or perhaps in anticipation of something more tangible? First lets take a brief look at one of their events, then at their broader effort.

They met in the June warmth of Santa Clara - “over 500” attendees at the Marriott (room rate: $180 + tax per night) per the hype, forty-six according to those who counted. The Forum of Indian Leftists (FOIL), the Friends of South Asia (FOSA), “senior writers” of the Indian English language media, the secessionists and soul-harvesters represented by “Khalistan” and “FIACONA”, and several political “charities”, all hosted by the Indian Muslim Council (IMC) [3]. The occasion was the First Annual Convention of the IMC. [4]

They whipped themselves into a lather repeating the only “news” they consider worth reporting about our nation of a billion humans in the past five years: their long-since disproved, incendiary tales of random murder and assault, and their version of the Gujarat riots of 2002 following the Godhra atrocity - the riots which dozens of Indian policemen died trying to stop.

Their mutual applause for bashing India rose to a crescendo for the Khalistani speaker. [5] This worthy presented his dream of Balkanizing India into little sectarian islands of xenophobia, amenable to being divided between the Caliphate of South Asia and the Empires of the Pure and the Harvested-Souls. As Messiahs of Secularism, they gathered to sneer at democracy. And they celebrated the damage they hoped they had done to India with a pompous news release - wisely omitting all reference to the Khalistani diatribe.

The Khalistan Connection

Remember Khalistan? The relatives of over 21,000 of their victims surely do.[6] Including the 329 on Air India’s Flight AI182 on June 23, 1985, murdered over the Irish Sea. [7]

The US Congressional Record remembers:[8]

QUOTE
“The role played by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence agency in exporting terror to Kashmir and Punjab in neighboring India was sufficiently well-documented for the previous administration to place the country on the watch list of states sponsoring terrorism. “

And so does the US State Department List of Terrorist Groups: [9]

QUOTE
“ Sikh terrorism is sponsored by expatriate and Indian Sikh groups who want to carve out an independent Sikh state called Khalistan (Land of the Pure) from Indian territory. Active groups include Babbar Khalsa, International Sikh Youth Federation, Dal Khalsa, Bhinderanwala Tiger Force, and the Shaheed Khalsa Force...Attacks in India are mounted against Indian officials and facilities, other Sikhs, and Hindus; they include assassinations, bombings, and kidnappings. External Aid: Militant cells are active internationally, and extremists gather funds from overseas Sikh communities
 international organizations that lobby for the Sikh cause overseas. Most prominent are the World Sikh Organization and the International Sikh Youth Federation.”

They can now add: “IMC, FOIL, FOSA, ASHA, SABRANG, ActionAid and AID” to that list.

The FOIL, FOSA and Sabrang need no introduction - not after their loud attempt last year to destroy an Indian-American charity, the India Development & Relief Fund (IDRF). The whole gang rushed, like rats after the Pied Piper, to “endorse” with high-sounding titles, an infantile “91-page Report”, as a “comprehensive product of five years of meticulous research”. Exposed as frauds and laughed off by public opinion,[10] they have now turned to more lucrative pursuits - general India-bashing. Good Wahhabi $$ to be had there, no doubt, with all those pilot-training funds going waste


Factual Accuracy - IMC style

The IMC itself has earned its notoriety the old-fashioned way. From their “newsletter” comes this sample of their integrity - a “condemnation” of the Godhra atrocity of February 2002:[11]

QUOTE
“The attack on the train by Muslims to rescue a woman abducted by the armed fascists in the train led to the fiery death of 58 people (the names of victims were never released by the govt.). All the Muslim groups of India unconditionally condemned the response of the Muslim rescuers. Nevertheless, the fascists used the attack on the train to launch their long-planned pogrom. The rapid spread of fire inside the two steel cars has raised suspicion that the gasoline carried by the militants in the train caught fire”.

And just in case that was not incendiary enough, here is their exhortation to Arabs to hurt Indians, from the same full-color poster:

QUOTE
“How Arab Muslims can help Indian Muslims! 
 More than 12 percent of the Indian Diplomatic Corps is Muslim compared to less than 1 percent of other civil services where they are heavily discriminated against. Occasionally, India appoints a Muslim President, who serves as figurehead only with no real power. Indian propaganda is so strong in the Arab world that when a recent New York Times article criticized Arabs for not speaking out for Indian Muslims while condemning the killing of Palestinians, some in the Arab media actually defended the silence of the Arab world. Action suggested: If you are an Arab and would like to help us convey the story of Indian Muslims, please contact info@Imannet.com “

Gee! I wish the IMC had told me that Nawab Mansur Ali Khan of Pataudi, captain of the Indian cricket team, was a “token” - before I blew my Life-Savings of Rs. 14 on that dream Genuine Kashmir Willow cricket bat bearing his “signature”. Or that Dr. Abdul Kalam, President of India who achieved the aerospace engineer’s dream - to be admired far more than he was ever feared, by those privileged to have worked with and for him - is just a “token”.

Bones for Faithful Friends

The Desi-Angrezi Media and the Political Charities were present in force. A veritable galaxy of Stars - Red Giants and Brown Dwarfs [12], judging by the concentrations of hot air. Ms. Arundhati Roy of AID, Dr. Sandeep Pandey of ASHA, Prof. Praful Bidwai. A repeat of their meeting at the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) event to “honour” fallen Naxalite terrorists in December 2002 [13]. Remember the Naxalites, who relieved Bengali, Malayalee and Telugu farmers of their heads and left them on their doorsteps as their version of “class war” in the 1970s? The latest mutation of Naxalite terror is the “People’s War Group”, which has recently announced “Death Sentences” on the Chief Ministers of three Indian States, with a public website declaring these, along with their full support of the Communist terrorists in the Philippines. Prof. Bidwai, true to his Red Giant status, decried the democratic election in Gujarat, declaring how the opinions of his editors and Himself were clearly superior to those of the stupid voters of India [14]. The media campaign was planned with the usual “meticulous preparation”. Loyal media persons were honored, just like those fallen Naxalite comrades, for hatchet-services rendered. Others were encouraged to emulate them, and did so with suitably truth-immune pieces. They gushed praise about the attendees, who can hardly be accused of doing a day’s honest work between the lot of them, while haughtily dismissing a Bay area trauma surgeon who saves more lives in an average day than most of us will do in a lifetime, as a “member of Hindu right-wing groups” - because he gave his honest opinion.

A Nasty Surprise For The American Lashkar

But just as this august gathering was getting underway, with a heartless lack of timing, US Federal Prosecutors announced the Grand Jury Indictment of certain worthies on the East Coast. As members of the Lashkar-e-Toiba. “Army of The Pure”. Sound familiar? Like “Khalistan” and “Pakistan” are both “Lands of The Pure”. Headquarters: Muridke, near Lahore. Bank account for donations (advertised on a US website for years): Habib Bank, Lahore. Recent website owner address: inside a Pakistan Army compound in Karachi. Example of the charges [15]:

QUOTE
“Masoud Khan, a Maryland man who was indicted, had a document titled “The Terrorist’s Handbook,” with instructions on how to manufacture and use explosives and chemicals as weapons, as well as a photograph of F.B.I. headquarters in Washington. “

We don’t have to use any imagination at all to see what those indictments say. There is a website where you can read it all in words simple and pure:

QUOTE
http://www.findlaw.com: [16] “
. It was further part of the conspiracy that the defendants and their conspirators gathered in private homes and in the Dar al Arqam Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, to hear lectures on the righteousness of violent jihad in Kashmir, Chechnya, and other places around the world, and to watch videotapes of mujahideen engaged in jihad in such locations. “

Let us take a moment to remind ourselves about the Lashkar-e-Toiba. They are as much against America as against India. Sicko killers and sex-offenders, who kill babies for fun, and play soccer with the severed heads of Indian schoolgirls - Indian Muslim schoolgirls. They machinegun laborers and pilgrims [17] and babies in their mothers’ arms, and they set fire to a tortured Indian Muslim woman, then extinguished the flames so that she would take the longest time dying in pain. They bragged about massacring the entire male population of the Sikh village of Chattisinghpura - incidentally, deflating that other Star of the Indian Media, Pankaj Mishra, who had already earned his pieces of silver for slandering the Indian police and army units in the area as murderers - with nary a piece of evidence, of course. Akhila Raman of the “Friends of South Asia” (more on this later) has staked her claim for the Pankaj Mishra Booby Prize for 2003, hyperventilating in the Lahore Daily Times [18] with similarly baseless slander against “Indian Renegades” (translation: those who are not on the side of those Muridke gents) for massacring Hindus at Nadimarg - only to be deflated by the dying declaration of the L-e-T terrorist who headed the massacre gang [19].

Praveen Swamy [20] gave some chilling statistics in 2000: For every 3 Pakistani terrorists killed in Jammu-Kashmir, one Indian soldier or policeman also dies. Plus two Indian civilians. “Indigenous insurgency” if any ever occurred in J&K, died decades ago when the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front sought refuge in India against Pakistani perfidy. The Pakistani practice of “conscripting” (kidnapping) Kashmiri boys into POK and sending them at L-e-T gunpoint into India [21] drove part of the Hizb-ul-Mujaheddin to also quit in the late ‘90s - but the L-e-T just kept on killing. The point is that most of the victims of the L-e-T are Indian MUSLIMS - with Sikhs and Hindus added for good, “secular” measure. In 1989, “indigenous Kashmiris” might have bought the Pakistani con as they posted notes taunting their Hindu neighbors to “run away for your lives, but leave your young daughters behind”, but those days are long over - the primary victims of Pakistani terrorism have been Indian Muslims. Tens of thousands.

The IMC and the Lashkar

To put it mildly, this is serious. I don’t think people who fund and train the L-e-T or Khalistan terrorists should be tolerated in society. They have the blood of tens of thousands of my compatriots on their hands. I tried to see how the IMC was connected to the L-e-T. And let me write here, clearly, that I do NOT find any direct connection between the IMC and those who trained or funded the L-e-T. I find no evidence, you see. Should this be surprising - why would the Indian Muslim Council in the US, composed of literate, educated people, be stupid enough to fund and train the #1 killer of Indian Muslims?

But it is surprising, given the abysmal record of the IMC. Havildar Abdul Hamid[22] was my childhood hero of the 1965 war, awarded the Param Vir Chakra (Posthumous) - India’s highest award for heroism in battle - destroying at least two (I prefer to believe the seven reported then) of Pakistan’s Patton tanks in the battle of Khemkaran. That battle turned Ayub Khan’s “Dilli Chalo” Surprise Strike Corps into Portoilets for Indian city parks. Havildar Abdul Hamid sacrificed his life to defend the right of the Chief Spokesman of the IMC, among others, to get a world-class engineering education, subsidized by the impoverished Indian taxpayer at a time when my parents and grandparents often went hungry. He was one of a privileged 1000 out of maybe a hundred thousand qualified applicants to the IITs. An opportunity which he, according to an admirer, dismisses with “even before he started college, (he) said he instinctively knew he had to leave India ” just as his organization disses India’s record of electing Presidents based on individual merit, and just as he cites his admiration for the Taliban and for Pakistan dictator Musharraf over our elected Prime Minister Vajpayee. As for the report of the L-e-T recruiting Indian expatriates in the Middle East [23] - others can decide if it is connected to IMC’s blatant solicitation of Arab help to attack India.

Other links give no reason to be sanguine. This IMC leadership invited a Khalistani speaker to their First Annual Convention. A clear, blatant link to a declared foreign terrorist organization which has murdered at least 44 American citizens, including the babies on AI 182. The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been tied to terror, with several national-level officials of CAIR arrested, deported or stopped at ports of entry, based on alleged terrorist ties. One is a Saudi alleged to be a paymaster for the 9/11 terrorists. The “CIIE” which runs the Dar al Arqam center, located not far from the IMC’s Maryland leaders, has of course denied that any terrorist training or indoctrination occurred[24] , but certain “distinguished lecturers on Islamic philosophy” have since had mysterious fallings-out with the CIIE [25]. The SIMI, banned as a terrorist group in India, has been linked to bombings in Mumbai - and to the L-e-T. We find at least one self-proclaimed SIMI founder tied to senior IMC leadership- and maybe some among that “South Asian Faculty” group which “endorses” the FOIL’s lies.

As of this writing, eleven of the arrested worthies in Virginia and Maryland have already pleaded guilty to training in Pakistan with the Lashkar-e-Toiba with automatic weapons and explosives [26]. To kill you and me and our loved ones and our friends. See Prem Panicker’s article (Ref.2) for more details of who was behind them.

Wait! Isn’t that proof that the FOIL and the IMC are tied to the Laskhar-e-Toiba terrorists? By the IMC’s own standards of honesty and logic, and by those of the FOIL’s “faculty”, we could say, “sure!” But hey, adults are supposed to have better standards.

Blame-Shifting: IMC Style

The IMC has recently made some token attempts to re-enter civilized society. Following the Dar-al-Arqam arrests and the conviction of a “charitable” Islamic AK-47 supplier, they published an “apology” for declaring on a web page (for over a year) that all Hindu temples should be closed down as terrorist-training and fundraising sites. Sort-of like their “condemnation” of the Godhra atrocity, but with a Musharraf-type gesture of “400%” credibility. They also posted a web page soliciting donations to help the Indian student who was hospitalized after a hate attack. And Mr. Kaleem Kawaja of the IMC does his trademark superficial soul-searching in “India Abroad” [27] blaming the community he represents for their perceived image problems: “The Indian Muslim intelligentsia.. should be more vocal in condemning the terrible happenings, in confronting and isolating the few extremists in their community”. Toba! Toba! Brave words indeed! Perhaps someone should kindly provide a mirror to help him search for the real problem- the abysmal standards of IMC leadership. Apparently someone did, figuratively speaking. [28]

Ethics - U.Chicago Style

The FOIL’s latest clue-challenged recruit takes pains to inform us that an article full of gratuitous hard-core pornography was written by herself as a “professor” in the School of Ethics at the University of Chicago (not to be confused with the more reputable University of Illinois). This worthy comes out with this new twist on the IMC version of the Godhra terrorist attack: [29]

QUOTE
"At least one Muslim vendor was beaten up when he refused to say "Jai Sri Ram" ("Hail Ram"), and a young Muslim girl narrowly escaped forcible abduction. As the train left the station, stones were thrown at it, apparently by Muslims. Fifteen minutes later, one car of the train erupted in flames. "

Pankaj Mishra has contributed his own investigative deduction to this. According to him, forensic investigations by a Mumbai lab have concluded that the fire started from inside the train - and that’s an amazing discovery! In other words, if someone locks you inside a steel cage and throws stones to break the glass windows, pours petrol inside and tosses the odd burning rag inside, it’s really your fault for “starting the fire inside” and burning yourself to death.

So the IMC / FOIL / University of Chicago contention is that in the 3 minutes that the Sabarmati Express halts at Godhra station at 7am on a winter morning - the innocent, chivalrous terrorists there, in righteous indignation at the Passenger-Fascists beating up a tea-vendor for bravely refusing to say “Hai Ram!” (Yeah! At 7am!), threw stones at the train - purely to save an imaginary damsel in distress from the clutches (or near-clutches, per above University Chicago Ethics Professor) of the sleeping women and children fascists on the sleeper coach, got the Fascist train stopped a mile from the station by pulling on the Fascist chain three times, -- where they had already assembled 1500 buddies armed with filled petrol cans and petrol-soaked rags and matches. And, 15 minutes later, on that peaceful winter morning, Boom! Spontaneous Combustion! The fascist women and children just burned themselves to death when the hot non-Ram-blessed tea spilled on the gasoline they had been carrying back from their pilgrimage, even as the chivalrous terrorists looked on and bravely ensured that the fire did not spread, by keeping the burning Fascist women and Fascist babies locked safely inside the Fascist steel carriage. Wow! It does take a Star of the Indian Media, or a University of Chicago Ethics Professor or an IMC leader to come up with these doozies, doesn’t it? The FOIL should consider recruiting some of these Godhra terrorists, who could manage all that inside 3 minutes. At least they are a lot smarter than FOIL’s faculty - and hey, there’s not much to choose about ethics, honesty or level of civilization among any of these.

What the Well-Dressed Terrorist Wears

The twisted version of the Godhra atrocity parroted by the FOIL, the Chicago Ethics Expert, and Pankaj Mishra, is another clear pointer to the FOIL and the IMC reading off the same script composed in unmistakable style. Vintage Rashid Quereshi / Musharraf / Hafeez Saeed . The kinds of people who, as Prem Panicker implies, will look you in the eye and tell you that the Sun rises in the West, and that Pakistan won the 1971 and Kargil wars, and only provides “moral support” to the Lashkar-e-Toiba - which of course doesn’t exist - but can be closed down “next day” anytime India “negotiates” with the Terrorist Slum of Pakistan.

The latest L-e-P campaign in the US is a series of “Kashmir Forum” events with a slide show prepared by Ms. Raman of FOSA. Raman’s name appeared as the website owner for the Sabrang/FOIL/FOSA “Stop Funding” Hate Campaign, including their ill-advised attempt to con voters [30]. From an attendee at the first Forum:

QUOTE
“ The audience appeared to be mixed -- Kashmiri Pandits, Indians, Indian Muslims and Pakistanis. There were many Americans and some non-Indian Asians. .. Couple of Pandits did object to the make up of the panel and asked for some time to speak. They were given two minutes each. .. She (Akhila Raman) had a slide that depicted a dead body of a Kashmiri that was being pulled away by India on one side and Pakistan on the other (thus portraying that the cause of Kashmiris was being hijacked by both India and Pakistan). What was disturbing on that slide was that India was portrayed by a Hindu Sadhu while Pakistan was portrayed by a well-dressed gentleman (in pant, shirt and tie)".

I do not presume to dispute Ms. Raman’s knowledge of nattily-dressed ISI agents, but I seem to remember reading that it was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (a “saffrontva”, no doubt?) who ordered Indian troops airlifted in to defend Jammu-Kashmir and kill the Pakistani sex-offenders invading it in 1948. Ms. Raman’s self-description appears to have morphed from “Software Consultant” in Dec. 2002 to the vastly more impressive “Researcher On the Kashmir Conflict” (“Hateware Consultant”?) today, indicating the funding trends, one supposes


Dollars and Blessings

Here’s what Raman’s favorite paper, the Lahore Daily Times had to say about their “Kashmir- Beyond the Blame Game” conference in Washington DC [31]:

QUOTE
“The only thing international about the conference was that it was held in Washington, but its principal audience appeared to be the establishment in Pakistan, which obviously had accorded its full blessings to the event
. no word was available as to the costs of the exercise and which agency, organisation or individual had defrayed them.. The patronising hand of the lone state agency which in recent years has taken almost sole responsibility for Kashmir, was much in evidence. A member of the Pakistani national legislature said “a certain outfit” in Islamabad had cleared the list of those invited to speak. The list of invitees from Pakistan remained confined to those who were expected to represent the official line or the line of the day.”

The attendees included Dr. Ayyub Thakkur, London-based “Kashmiri Activist” about whom one might find much more in the Indian media related to terrorist funding. From the India Tribune [32] comes this different view of continued ISI sponsorship. Summarizing ISI directives to the “All-Party Hurriyat Conference”, a secessionist outfit in Kashmir: “Set up APHC offices abroad to give high profile to the APHC and internationalise the Kashmir issue in a more effective manner. The ISI even identified the prospective foreign offices of APHC and offered its financial and logistic support for the purpose. It suggested Ghulam Nabi Fai’s office of Kashmir American Council in the USA and Ayub Thakur’s office of his NGO Mercy International in UK as some of the foreign addresses.

Here’s what the ISI themselves have to say about the “Kashmir” gang in the US[33]. The South Asia Tribune, quoting Colonel Shuja Khanzada, self-declared ISI operative posted to the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, talking about a visit by Opposition Leader Benazir Bhutto in 1993-94:

QUOTE
“Then she came to Washington, met people. She met the CIA people. Khalid Hasan (journalist) was there, Zaidi (journalist) was there. Dr Fai (Kashmiri lobbyist) was there 
 I told Dr. Fai to step up his campaign so that they don't get the impression that you are involved in the same issue
.”

These reports indicate that Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai takes his orders directly from the Pakistani ISI. The South Asia Tribune is considered the closest thing to a free Pakistani-American media outlet.

The Lansing Circle

Now lets see a curious circle of events and facts. In November 2002, Dan Pero of Lansing, Michigan based Sterling International Consulting announced that Musharraf’s dictatorship was giving his firm $55000 / month to “cleanse the news about Pakistan” [34]. A web link on this story says:

QUOTE
"The PR firm is to find Pakistani-Americans willing to speak out on behalf of Pakistan. Those 'message surrogates' will be given talking points and media training by SICC."

Well, they certainly seem to have done so. We can all see a huge increase in the wealth available to the anti-India campaign, with all the “Kashmir Conference” and “Beyond the Blame Game” ISI propaganda, plus all the free access to the Pakistani media for FOIL/FOSA luminaries. Ms. Nirmala Deshpande now visits US for the first time -- and is painted as THE leading expert on Gandhiji -- who died when she was barely eighteen. She made a couple of visits to Pakistan in the recent past. The chief sponsor of her tour is Lansing Michigan based "Non-Resident Indians for a Secular and Harmonious India -- (NRI-SAHI)" [35]

NRI-SAHI shares web space with (surprise!) Akhila Raman -- Shalini Gera sponsored Ektaonline.[36] Ms. Gera is a co-author of the infantile “91-page Report Produced from 5 years of Meticulous Research”. NRI-SAHI is also an avatar of Vaishnava Center for Enlightenment, which happens to be based in -- you guessed it -- East Lansing, Michigan. The Center is in the forefront of many activities/mailing lists which are circulated by Raman, Dr. Angana Chatterji and Kawaja. For example, they protested visits to the U.S. by (elected) Indian leaders but of course remained speechless during Gen. Musharraf's visit to Camp David. Sterling International provides a wide array of speakers for all occasions.[37] Among its featured speakers is Arun Gandhi, grandson of the Mahatma and a close associate of Ms. Nirmala Deshpande. Mr. Kaleem Kawaja of the blatantly sectarian IMC is an ardent defender of the Taliban and General Musharraf in articles and letters to the media. But he nowwants us to believe that he is a “Secular and Harmonious Indian” and tough critic of the Indian Muslim community. He is the chief coordinator of Deshpande's tour.

Why is geographic proximity of these organizations and their funding sources relevant in the age of the Internet, Al Qaeda and the Patriot Act? I’ll leave that one to the reader.

And where’s Dr. Biju Matthew, the chief spokesman of the FOIL? Last heard, he was sending out a “sample letter” to the President of Columbia University protesting the invitation to Prime Minister Vajpayee, initiator of the peace process with Pakistan -- the man who has tried time and time again to put “Insaniyat” over insanity in dealing with the mass murderers in Pakistan. I don’t think Matthew sent any such letter protesting the visit of dictator Musharraf. Understandable, since the Pakistan Embassy or CPI (Marxist) People’s Democracy websites probably did not have a sample letter for that.

The Matrix of Losers

So, to summarize the obvious: The FOIL, FOSA, IMC and FIACONA have joined hands with the Pakistani junta to attack India. Having proved their “credentials” with their tears for Naxalite terrorist corpses, but perhaps smarting from their Kargil-like blunder in trying to attack Indian orphans, leprosy patients and tribal kids, they appear to have graduated to the more lucrative occupation of “Kashmir Researchers”. Even Terence Hill’s “Wild Bunch”, as small in number as they were, needed lots of funding to make noise -- and we’re talking about distinguished “Kashmir Researchers” and Stars of the Indian Media, spending their high-priced hate-time here. There’s massive funding behind their efforts -- its obvious from the budgets for the IMC Annual Convention, the “Kashmir-Beyond the Blame Game” event, and the more recent road shows and seminars run by the FOIL, FOSA and IMC/NRI-SAHI.

Is the Lashkar-e-Pinocchio sponsored by the Pakistani terrorist enterprise - the murderers of Daniel Pearl [38] and tens of thousands of our fellow citizens, and probable organizers of the 9/11 terrorist atrocity? [39] In their “meticulously-researched report”, which the whole FOIL, FOSA and IMC/NRI-SAHI gang endorsed, they condemned Indian-Americans for helping the New York firefighters’ families bereaved in the 9/11 attack. They cited that as “evidence” of anti-Muslim sentiment! Does this blighted gang deserve to be judged on THEIR standards of “evidence”, or ours?

Buried in the “news” on Sep. 28, 2003 is the end of another Indian family’s dreams and lives: [40]

QUOTE
“A group of four militants came to the house of one Sain Hussain around 10.30 pm (IST) yesterday. One of the militants forced his entry inside and opened indiscriminate fire on the family killing four people on the spot and injuring another. The dead have been identified as three brothers -- Khadim Hussain, Munir Hussain, Mohammad Hussain -- and a two-year-old child Saddam Hussain. In the past too, terrorists have killed infants when they believe they were targetting police informers.”

In other words, these brave Indian Muslims died because they dared to do their duty as citizens of India. And two-year old Saddam died -- why DID he die, O “Kashmir Researchers”? How many “bullet points” on that ISI-approved PowerPoint presentation did his little life buy?

Reason for Hope?

Perhaps the IMC netas, being old enough, will understand without further explanation why many Indians view their activities with utter disgust. It has nothing to do with “Indian Muslims” vs. “Indian Hindus” -- I wish I could begin to imagine half the bravery of people like Abdul Hamid and Sain Hussain. Perhaps the recent official spotlight on the Lashkar-e-Toiba, CAIR, SIMI, the American Muslim Council (AMC) and the Khalistan airline terrorism trial in Canada, may induce some introspection. On the wisdom, if not the morality, of being sycophantic mouthpieces for the prime murderers of Indian Muslims -- the Pakistani terrorist groups, their dictator and his Army. A good start would be to cleanse the leadership ranks of the Pinocchios who blame the community for their own well-deserved notoriety, and the would-be Attas playing with paintball guns -- and consider if an outfit called “IMC-USA” as opposed to just “IC-USA” is relevant to 21st century America. At least get spokespersons possessed of better standards -- get the organization out of their sewer dalliances with habitual liars and terrorists. In the interests of Truth in Advertising, they could consider changing their name to PMC-USA -- though my sense is that “namak-haraam” won’t find much respect there either. I hope the FBI does not prove me wrong about the absence of IMC/ L-e-T links -- but don’t take my word for it. Do monitor http://www.findlaw.com

As for the FOIL, FOSA, their South Asia and Religion and Ethics Faculty, the Khalistanis and such other losers, they are easy to understand, as a “Hateware Consultants for Hire” service. As Charles Bronson said in “Telefon”, “Everyone should do what they do best”.

References :
[1] Terence Hill’s movie: “My Name is Nobody”.
[2] Panicker, Prem, “Pinocchio Pervez”. India Abroad, Sep. 26, 2003. http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/sep/26prem.htm
[3] “Indian Muslims Launch Advocacy Group”. PAKISTANLINK, August 30, 2002, http://www.pakistanlink.com/Community/2002/August/30/06.html
[4] “Indian Muslim Council - USA's First National Convention a Huge Success“ http://www.imc-usa.org/cgi-bin/cfm/weeklyDigest.cfm?WDID=61
[5] Eyewitness report from an attendee at the IMC 1st Annual Convention, Santa Clara, USA, June 28, 2003.
[6] Bruce Hoffman "Holy Terror": The Implications Of Terrorism Motivated By A Religious Imperative RAND Paper P-7834, 1993 http://www.nwcitizen.com/publicgood/reports/holywar3.htm#endn39
[7] Investigations into the Kanishka Bombing, 1985. From South Asia Terror Portal, Institute of Conflict Management. http://www.satp.org/India/Punjab/Kanishka.htm
[8]Anderson, J.W., Khan, Khamran, "Pakistan's Involvement In Narco-Terrorism" Congressional Record, Oct. 3, 1994 (Extension of Remarks ) [Page: E2044]
[9]Anon., "Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1999". Background Information on Terrorist Groups; US Government Archive Site for State Department information prior to January 20, 2001. http://www.state.gov/www/global/terrorism/1999report/appb.html
[10] “Concerted Attack on the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) Exposing Biju Mathew, A.K.Sen, Sabrang.com, and the "Campaign to Stop Funding Hatred" http://www.geocities.com/charcha_2000/essays/attack_on_idrf_by_mathew.html
[11] From ““Unite to Fight Hindu Fascists” IMANET Newsletter, Indian Muslim Alert Network”, color poster circulated by the Indian Muslim Council, 2002.
[12] Stars in a state of decay. Respectively, one whose gravity and substance is too low to hold itself together, and hence gets bloated, and one which is collapsing under its own excessive (but spent) weight as its nuclear fires go out, but is too small to re-ignite.
[13] Sahay, Anand Mohan, “CPI-ML faction to honour kin of 1000 Naxalites”. Rediff, November 15, 2002. http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/nov/15naxal.htm
[14]Arora, Vasantha, “Preserve Secular India, Stress Indian Muslims in U.S.”. IANS, July 2, 2003. http://in.news.yahoo.com/030702/43/25l6q.html
[15] Anon, “Group of Muslims Charged With Plotting Against India”. New York Times, June 27.
[16] McNulty, P.J., Kormberg, G.D., Laufman, D.H., Gibbs, J.T, “In the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, United States of America vs. Randall Todd Royer” Grand Jury Indictment. June 2003 http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/usroyer603ind.pdf
[17] Menon, J.E., Komerath, N.M., “The Hizb-ul-Mujahedidin Ceasefire - Who Aborted It”? Bharat-Rakshak Monitor, Volume 3(2) September - October 2000 http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/MONITOR/ISSUE3-2/narayanan.html
[18] Raman, Akhila, “Nadimarg and Kashmiriyat”. Lahore Daily Times, http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_3-4-2003_pg3_3
[19] Fayyaz, Ahmed Ali, “Pre-death revelation: Abu Ma’z did Nadimarg”. http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/03aug09/news.htm#1
[20] Swami, Praveen. Battle Lines in Kashmir. The Hindu, Frontline, Vol.17, Issue 02, Jan 22-Feb.04, 2000. http://www.the-hindu.com/fline/fl1702/17020080.htm
[21] Anon, “ 7 die in Lashkar-Hizbul gunfight”. AFP, The Times of India, June 13, 2002.
[22] Joseph, Josy, “The Gallant 21: Param Vir Chakra winners so far. 2639885, Company Havildar Major Abdul Hamid, 4 Grenadiers, 10 September 1965, Khem-Karan (posthumous). Rediff, August 1999. Available at http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/HEROISM/Hamid.html
[23] Times News Network, “Lashkar Using Indian Expatriates in West Asia”. December 28, 2002. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?art_id=32590603
[24]Official Statement from CIIE regarding the arrests of alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists in the Eastern US. http://www.ciie.org/
[25] Branch-Brioso, K., “12 Washington-area Muslims investigated for alleged terrorist ties” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 12, 2003. http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/politics/6075161is.htm
[26] Parasuram, T.V., “Jehadi admits getting training in Pakistan” www.rediff.com August 26, 2003
[27] Kawaja, Kaleem, “Muslims must understand..” letter in India Abroad, September 19, 2003
[28] Farida, Majid, “A Deception Named "The Need for Introspection" http://bangladesh-web.com/news/sep/24/d24092003.htm#A1
[29] Nussbaum, Martha, “Genocide in Gujarat: The International Community Looks Away”. Dissent, August 2003.
[30] “Anonymous Einsteins try to mislead LetIndiaDevelop petition signers” http://www.geocities.com/charcha_2000/essays/cyber_flimflam.html
[31] Hasan, Khalid, “Acrimonious Kashmir conference fails” Daily Times, Lahore. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_27-7-2003_pg7_41
[32] Sharma, Rajeev, “ISI’s strategy on Kashmir backfires”. Tribune Special, Tribune India, February 1, 2003. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030202/main2.htm
[33] ”How Gen. Kakkar blew up plans to roll back the Nuclear Program”. Special SAT Report. South Asia Tribune, July 27, 2002. http://www.satribune.com/archives/july27_02_02/isi_whistle_blower.htm
[34] Berkowitz, Bill, “Cleansing the News From Pakistan” http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14520 November, 2002
[35] Scharfenberg, David, “Indian Activist Takes Bush to Task”. Santa Cruz Sentinel, Sep. 9, 2003. http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2003/September/09/local/stories/02local.htm
[36] Website of leftist group, Ekta Online. http://nrisahi.ektaonline.org/
[37] Sterling International Rent-A-Speaker program : http://www.sterlingspeakers.com/main.htm
[38] Levy, Bernard Henri, “Who Killed Daniel Pearl?” Melville House Publishing, September 2003.
[39] Komerath, Narayanan, “Pakistani Role in Terrorism Against the U.S.A.”. Bharat-Rakshak Monitor, Volume 5(2) September-October 2002. http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/MONITOR/ISSUE5-2/narayanan.html
[40] Anon, “Militants kill four members of a family in Udhampur”. NDTV.com, Sep. 28, 2003. http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=Ceasefire&slug=Militants+kill+four+people+in+Udhampur&id=43098&callid=1

Ah! So it IS as I guessed. These India-hating liars are all connected, part of the same gang getting handouts from the Paki ISI and the Communist Chinese "SHANSI FOUNDATION".

I notice that a new scam has come up, called PROMISE OF INDIA. Abuses the Tricolor flag - wonder why GOI doesn't demand that the site be closed down.

The Board of Trustees of PROMISE OF INDIA includes SHALINI GERA, one of the authors of the FOIL/ Sabrang's Report, mentioned in the "Lashkar-e-Pinocchio article" above. Lashkar-e-Pinocchio!!! What an apt name!

All the same con artists are now in "PROMISE OF INDIA", which seems to be a mutation and outgrowth of "NRI-SAHI" (NRIs for a Secular and Harmonious India) a.k.a IMC (Indian MUSLIM Council)
... er.. doesn't "secular" mean same as "All*h & Mussharraf ho Akbar" in double-speak? So in one fell swoop, the Commies demean the Tiranga of India, and the term "Secular" in the constitution. By the IMC's definitions, the Taliban and Osama bin Laden are Secular too!

Oh! Cool! The Petition Against Modi, started by the AID neta using his Johns Hopkins University account, has brought results. Kaleem Kawaja and his CAIR Mujaheddin have broken into the Pentagon's email list-serve (wonder when they did that...) and posted a message there as part of their campaign.

This is surely the sort of thing that one wants to see one's favorite charity doing.

More on "See what u r funding".
See

http://www.pittsburghindian.com/board/viewtopic.php?p=11567#11567
and much much more here

****************************************************

Here is slew of emails (we know where this comes from, don't we Shailabh Nagar icon_wink.gif ), the posts by SRIRAM ANANTHANARAYANAN have been put in bold.
SRIRAM ANANTHANARAYANAN is leader of AID JHU see http://www.aidprojects.org/projects-view.asp?login=guest&id=188

Kaleem Kawaja, the initiator of this exchange is well known for his support to Taliban, in this article
http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/01032002/0103200254.htm
where he asks his brother to spare tears for Taliban.

Note the presence of Pakistanis like Ms. Toor in the exchange.

These are kind of people AID guys interact with. People are known by the company they keep.

Of course if you have any doubts about AID's leftisit connections visit
http://www.geocities.com/aid_india_info/AID_DOC.html

Quote:

Kaleem Kawaja
Email : kawaja@worldnet.att.net
Date : Jan 30 , 2004

Friends:

The butcher of Gujarat 2002 Narendra Modi has been invited by the Asian American Hotel Owners of America (AAHOA), an organization comprising mostly of people from the state of Gujarat who own thousands of motels in US, as the chief guest in their convention in March.

It is time for all like-minded Indians regardless of who they are to band together and take concrete action in this regard. The following actions can be taken.

1. Write letters to the US State Deptt requesting that based on his criminal & murderous record he should not be given a visa to visit US.

2. If he receives the said visa, we can group together to hold a massive protest against him when he visits US. When he visited London last year the Indian folks there organized a massive protest.

3. Let us not remain silent. Let us organize.

A few weeks ago I read an article in India Abroad by Prof Jyoti Motwani, a top Indian-American community leader and top leader of Overseas Friends of BJP, in NYC, who justified the killing of 2000 Muslims following the Godhara train burning incident as a "strategic necessity for India".

Kaleem Kawaja

Kaleem Kawaja
Email : kawaja@worldnet.att.net
Date : Feb 16 , 2004

Hello all:

As some of you may have heard, Narendra Modi, the butcher of Gujarat, is likely to visit US to be the chief guest at the AAHOA convention in Ft Lauderdale, FL, on March 24-26. A coalition of several Indian humanitarian organizations is planning to organize a protest campaign against Modi/his party BJP/those who are funding the campaigns of oppression of the minorities and secular folks in India. Part of the campaign is publishing advertisements in US newspapers to inform the US public about how the above culprits have violated the human rights of a segment of the preople of Gujarat and India.

The Coalition needs the support of everyone who believes in the basic humanity of mankind and believes that these human rights violations are awful. You can provide this support in many forms: Contribute financially so that an advertisement can be published in US newspapers; attend the public protest meetings/rallies (date, venue to be announced).

With only 1 month to go time is very short. Some volunteers have started the development of the advertisement. At this time the first and urgent need is to collect donations for the publication of the said advertisement. It will cost quite a few thousand dollars. So your immediate and generous donations are earnestly requested. You may send your donation to the Association of Indian Muslims of America (AIM), one of the members of the above mentioned coalition.
Kindly mail your checks to:

Association of Indian Muslims of America
PO Box 10654, Silver Spring, MD 20914.

Many thanks for your generous help.

Kaleem Kawaja

Name : Nicole Poyyayil
Email : npoyyayil@yahoo.com
Date : Feb 16, 2005

Initiative: No Visa for Modi

Dear Friends
I am very concerned about Modis`visit to the USA. As you are fully aware, AAHOA has invited Modi as the chief guest to the 2005 annual convention which will be held on march 24-26th at Ft.Lauderdale, Florida. I strongly emphasize that all possible actions should be taken to prevent Modi from entering the USA. Therefore it needs immediate actions by all of us. On my part, I have already contacted the US Embassy, where the responsible Mr. Scott Hartmann will act accordingly. As to him, it is very important to provide him with detailed facts and proved reasons why Modi should not get a visa to enter the USA. Beeing a swiss citizen, I am compelled to act through the US Embassy in Switzerland. I am counting on you and hope to get your support for this very important action.

What could you do:

- Please send me a list / summary of detailed facts (incl. sources etc) on Modis criminal actions (past and present).
- Please send me the informations as soon as possible
- You could also submit the informations directly to Mr. Scott Hartmann to the US Embassy. If you wish to do so, this is the addresse: US Embassy, Visa Section, To the Attn. Mr. Scott Hartmann, 3001 Bern, Switzerland.

I strongly believe that any possible actions must be taken and I will definitely do so.

Best wishes
Nicole Poyyayil

Name : Kamala Visweswaran
Email : kvis2001@yahoo.com
Date : Feb 16 , 2005

!PeoplePeoplePeople!

Multitudes, minions, and apparently sleeping masses. Time to do something about Modi's visit.

I am ashamed and embarassed at the relative silence on this list about Modi's visit, and the fact that Muslim and Christian organizations have so far had to take the lead in developing the Modi campaign. This is neither fair, nor tactically sound, given the vulnerability of the Muslim community in the US after 9/11. Secular organizations have to step forward to do the work, planning, and to shoulder responsibility. We need to build a broad coalition fast, which includes POI, CAC, CSFH, YSS, DRUM, Mango Sisters, Sakhi, Manavi, Worker's Awaaz, etc. etc.

We should definitely make all efforts to get his visa denied, but we cannot expect that it will be. We should write editorials and articles. But we need more. I propose:
1) We aim to mobilize 10 busloads of protesters to converge on Ft. Lauderdale March 24-25. Let's organize some freedom rides down the East Coast and into Florida to make M-24 Indian diaspora anti-genocide day. We need to issue a call immediately, rent the buses (maybe ANSWER has some discount rates we can avail of), literature, street theatre, drumming (Raja is hereby nominated) and agit prop. (I will try to mobilize a bus from Texas).

2) We tell AAHOA that if they persist in "honoring" Modi, we are organizing a massive boycott call of all AAHOA owned hotels in the US and Canada. We will take out ads, jam the diaspora list-servs, and show up unannounced at Patel Motels everywhere with signs, stickers, and literature explaining the boycott and listing alternate hotels in the area to be patronized.

I propose we form two commitees to organize each mobilization, and further propose that the East Coast FOILers who are more numerous and have more critical mass TAKE CHARGE NOW. We have 5 weeks to pull off something massive.

Please, people let's have the next slew of e-mails be people signing up to do work on either committee. We can debate the finer points of the mobilizational strategies in the work groups; let's not do it on the listserv.

Kamala

Name : SRIRAM ANANTHANARAYANAN
Email : sriram@jhu.edu

i'm in. particularly with committe number 2. do you have a list of action items? should we start by writing out an appeal of sorts, maybe a letter to send to aahoa bigwigs, and the participants in the trade show? what about letters to the state regarding the visa stuff?

once more people have signed up, maybe we should have a phone conference one of these evenings to thrash out action items.

sri

Name : Kamala Visweswaran
Email : kvis2001@yahoo.com

Hi Sri:

You are hereby nominated to head up the Boycott Committee; thanks. icon_smile.gif Who else is joining?

Can you come up w/a list of action items, maybe brainstorm w/some Alliance people? Who else is signing up to work on this committee.

Yes, there is a letter being drafted to the AAHOA suggesting that a boycott will happen. It will circulate soon.

Can also get you the membership list of AAHOA id the committee wants to do mailings to them.

Good idea to do a conference call in the next few days to consolidate ideas and strategy.

Kamala

Name : SRIRAM ANANTHANARAYANAN
Email : sriram@jhu.edu

among others, these are some of the action items i could think off
straight away:

1) boycott letter needed.

2) checked the aahoa website (http://www.aahoa.com). i think we should concentrate our emails more on the founding sponsor list (under "allied directory" on the left hand side). these have people from all over the country, and from different companies who can ill-afford bad publicity. this is in direct contrast to the board of directors (out of 9, 8 are patels), the exec committee (out of 10, 9 are patels), and the regional directors (out of 18, 17 are patels). all these can be found under "about aahoa" on left hand side. it is very likely that many of these people are quite entrenched with the sangh's philosophy, else they wouldn't have invited him in the first place.

3) we should consider contacting newspapers (particularly the investigative journalists) in atlanta (aahoa hq) and fort lauderdale (conf venue). there are 5 major newspapers in atlanta and 4 major ones in ft lauderdale. we could use the letter as a template, you know talk of the pogrom that took place in gujarat, the modi-govt's complicity, as well as the support the sangh recieves from expats in the states and request them to do an investigation, and a write-up.

4) we should also i think try and send the letter to managers/employees in the various companies that are there as founding sponsors of the aahoa.

5) maybe think of sending it to investigative journalists in other newspapers as well.

6) send it to hotels that are NOT under the aahoa. if nothing else they would like to help in hurting their competition.

please add more as you see fit. we should probably have a conf call this weekend.

thanks,

sri

Dear Sri:

These items are a terrific start. Am not sure that the other letter will circulate after all, but perhaps it's not bad to have multiple letters to AAHOA.

Great idea to send letter to the sponsors and to non-member hotels of AAHOA.

I think we should also think about what a long term successful boycott would look like. Can we draw up a two year time frame?

I think we may need to do a little research for the longterm:

1) What are the strategies used by other successfu boycotts: i.e. UAW boycott of grapes, GLBT boycott of Coors, etc?

2)How much money do AAHOA hotels make a year? Do they derive any part of their business from Universities, which we use student pressure to boycott? We should research the Ft. Lauderdale hotel/university connections first: if we find a link, we can use that to mobilize students in the area.

3)what percentage of the hotels are roadside POTELS? If we find that a alrge number of them are distributed along interstates, we will need to figure out a way of publicly identifying them.

--Kamala

Saadia Toor
Editor http://ghadar.insaf.net
(Pakistani Activist)

Email : saadiatoor@yahoo.com

may i also suggest that we mobilise support through other, non-south-asian social justice channels? for instance, if we can send a press release or action alert out to indymedia or z-net or something, that will help spread the word, and help in fund raising should we decide to go with any of the crazy ideas i'm about to throw out. i think it's best to have a base of support that is not limited to south asians or people of south asian descent... or at least hope that we can. and maybe this sounds very ambitious or whacky, but what about sending something, a short op-ed piece or a letter to the editor, to _the nation_? also, i think we may need to consider taking ads out in a newspaper or magazine? i have no idea how much buying space on a major newspaper would cost, but if we could manage to pool the resources of all or most of the organisations and groups fighting hindutva in the US, couldn't we manage something? having our message out there in a major newspaper conveys some!
thing about our strength and sends a message to the powers-that-be within the US political scene as well. and as long as i'm throwing out crazy ideas, how much does renting billboards cost? i can get in touch with ad-busters, whose raison d'etre is subversive anti-advertising, for help. we could do posters and flyers (and billboards?) using modi's words and the obnoxious cheery posters of the gujarat tourism board (which hit me as soon as i came out of the international terminal at JFK last year) in which modi invites people to come to gujarat for garba ras!!

saadia
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Before you donate any money to AID, you must first look at how they
are currently utilizing the money they are currently recieving as
donations.

AID is currently working with organizations in India such as DYFI
(Democratic youth federation of India) and SFI. DYFI is the youth wing
of the Communist party of India (Marxist), while the Students
federation of India (SFI) is the student wing of the communist
party(Marxist). These are purely political organizations that have a
voilent and criminal past. These organizations have in the past been
linked to murders, voilent protests (including towards Americans).

DYFI and SFI are communist organizations. Communist organizations have
always opposed American Interests. Funding these organizations does
not fall in line with the American ideals of spreading freedom and
democracy.

That AID is working with DYFI, SFI and other communist organizations
is now a fact. To gather some more information of this nexus, please
visit:

http://www.india-herald.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=1&twindow=&mad=&sdet
ail=608&wpage=1&skeyword

and also:

http://www.aidindia.info

Also, if you do a google search of the words "AIDINDIA DYFI" or "AID
DYFI", you will still see a lot of pages providing details that AID is
indeed working with DYFI.

AID volunteers need to clarify why they collected funds (tax-free)
here and then used them to work along side Anti American communist
organizations overseas.

To give just one example of the Anti-American nature of DYFI, please visit:

http://pd.cpim.org/2003/0420/04202003_kolkata_protest.htm

Several Anti- US protests have been organized by DYFI in the past
outside the US consulates at India. Several more such protests will
continue to be organized by this AID supported organization in the
future, about which there should be no doubt.

I also would like to inform you that AID's collaboration with DYFI in
India is in violation of its 501(C)(3) tax exempt status. To give you
an idea of what the law actually tells us, I urge you to visit the IRS
site"

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p526/ar02.html#d0e1127

In the website: please note the following important lines:

--- snip ----
You cannot deduct contributions to organizations that are not
qualified to receive tax deductible contributions, including the
following.

4. Communist organizations.
--- snip ---

It is obvious AID is duping its donors regarding its 501C tax exempt
status by using the money collected in the United States to work along
side communist groups in India.

Money collected here for tsunami victims should not result in
increased goodwill for groups that inherently hate the United States.
As residents of America, it is our duty not to fund organizations
overseas that indulge in stirring Anti-American sentiment.

I wish to inform you that I am not asking that people not donate to Tsunami
victims. I only want to remind them that they have a choice. And they need
to make the right choice that will make this world a safe place to
live and not promote discord in our world.

I hope this helps.

regards,

Proud_Indian

Look! AID funds are working already. The poor, deprived Naxals of CPI(M/L) are able to buy Paki ISI-supplied AK-47s from the ULFA. Just think! Maybe it was your dollars, maybe it was the "Sulekha Matching" dollars from someone else .. but hey, you doubled your donation, and that can now kill two Indian villagers or policemen instead of one!

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200503131972.htm

"ULFA weapons from ISI find their way to naxals

New Delhi, March 13 (PTI): The weapons supplied by Pakistan's ISI to Assam's insurgent outfit ULFA are finding their way to naxal groups spread across 11 states, according to central security agencies.

A report prepared by the agencies said the naxal outfits were depending on arms from ULFA which, in turn, is supplied by ISI through certain agencies of Bangladesh, informed sources said.

They said there were inputs suggesting that ULFA was supplying weapons to Maoist groups which were earlier equipped with traditional weapons.

The AK series rifles and Self-Loading Rifles (SLRs) were now common with the naxal groups and even the land-mine blasts carried out by these groups in Andhra Pradesh and certain parts of Bihar and Jharkhand showed a considerable advancement of technology in these armory.

Recently, police recovered AK-47 and SLRs from the naxal leaders killed in an encounter with police in Andhra Pradesh.

ISI had in late 1990s attempted to woo naxal groups by meeting some of its top brass in Bangladesh but it was turned down then because of idelogical differences, the report submitted to the Union Home Ministry said.

The ISI with the help of Directorate General of Foreign Intelligence (DGFI) of Bangladesh have roped in ULFA making it the front organisation for supply of arms which the Maoist organisations are in dire need following a massive crackdown by police, it said. "
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Yes, yes I know. HOW CAN I be so cruel and insinuate that AID = CPI(M/L)?

If any AID netas want me to explain that here, all they have to do is let me know - and I'll be glad to tell you.