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It all began with Adam Patel, member of the Lords declaring, "I very much regret ever having been part of this racist organisation and I will be forwarding my complaints to the Charity Commission".
Over two and a half years later the Charity Commission clears Sewa International, and yet Lord Patel remains unsatisfied. Evidently, his dissatisfaction stems from the conclusion that "The Commission is satisfied that the trustees have taken sufficient steps to ensure funds have been applied in accordance with the appeal. In January 2004, Sewa International (UK) arranged for a delegation of 30 people from major donors to visit Gujarat to view the completed rehabilitation projects. The delegates produced a report which confirms they were satisfied that the funds had been spent in accordance with the Gujarat appeal".
Despite the cloud of suspicion and accusations of "racism", "fascism", being unrepresentative of "Hindu communities or Hinduism... and represent(ing) a political cult... of Mussolini and Hitler.", the selfless workers of this charity have helped to transform the lives of thousands following the Gujarat earthquake. After providing immediate post trauma support in the form of food, shelter, and mobile medical support, Sewa International have worked with Sewa Bharati in India to rebuild whole villages in the affected districts. 35 schools have been reconstructed or founded, medical facilities have been made available where previously there were few, and whole communities of thousands of people have been given a new lease of life.
But still Adam Patel remains unsatisfied!
Sadly, he is not alone. The folks at an outfit called Awaaz are equally disgruntled.
Why? Well, to Awaaz, the Charity Commission's findings are "A deception exposed" and that "the charity ... have failed to provide audited accounts of how the money raised for the Gujarat earthquake appeal was spent in India", and that "The Charity Commission also admits that it was unable to establish for itself how the funds were used in India, as they were not granted visas by the then BJP-headed Indian government".
Awaaz, you see, is not in the business of rebuilding villages or providing succour to the needy. It aspires to higher goals. It boasts one single agenda: The denigration of Sewa International (SI UK), Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS UK), and Vishwa Hindu Parishad UK (VHP UK). It does not take a genius to know that all these are Hindu organizations.
And how does Awaaz articulate this agenda? Check their website and it will tell you in their own words. Awaaz are the sub-continents guardians of "a plural, multicultural society in which groups and individuals live under common values of democracy and equality". They are also committed to "the right of individuals and groups to pursue their faiths, or no faith at all, within a democratic and tolerant framework". And they further believe "in full equality and human rights, irrespective of a range of factors including religion, caste, class, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, language and nationality".
Confused? OK, let's try and take this in slowly.
One organisation, Sewa, raises funds for good causes, delivers on its promises, has a web site that transparently tells everyone who Sewa are, with contact details, addresses, and has plans of its activities together with regular reports on its projects. It posts testimonials from beneficiaries and observers alike, many in the latter group made up of society's good and the great - MPs, Councillors, professionals, businesspeople, royalty; men and women of integrity who recognise good work and are happy to travel to the affected areas and see for themselves the work of Sewa, to meet and interact with the beneficiaries and volunteers of the charity.
The other organisation, Awaaz, has a great website with copious material on their single point agenda - anti Sewa, anti VHP, anti HSS - in effect, ANTI-HINDU. They boast an empty visitor's book, the site gives a list of organisations behind Awaaz - comprising of left wing, Islamic, Christian, and fringe, but none of them Hindu; neither do they give the names of the authors of their 80 page report on Sewa which still forms the main banner of the web site twelve months on.
Most importantly, just as twelve months ago, Awaaz, as custodians of "democracy and equality" and "the rights of individuals and groups to pursue their faiths", still have nothing to say about:
* The continuing land grabbing,
rape, desecration of temples, murder and systematic extermination of Hindus
by the thousands in Bangladesh
* The plight of bonded labourers,
or what may better be termed as perpetual slaves, in Pakistan
* The widows and orphans of some
4000 Sikh victims of the purges by Congress party thugs in 1984, who are
still awaiting justice nearly a year into the tenure of a Congress Sikh
Prime Minister
Talking of the Congress government being in office this past year, makes the Awaaz claim even more incredulous that it is the former BJP government that denied permission for the Charity Commission to visit and see the work of Sewa Bharati in India. Sewa International cannot be held accountable for what a foreign government allows the Charity Commission to do or not do within its borders.
And as to the financial accounts of Sewa Bharati in India, which Awaaz makes so much of, surely if there were any foundation to the allegation that funds were used to sponsor "hatred" and "political cult... of Mussolini and Hitler", then the Charity Commission could have asked the UK government to take up the matter with the Indian government?
Can anyone except Awaaz imagine the likes of Dawoodbhai, Karimbhai and their families in Vachrajpur, or the relatives of Mr Mia who wrote about their wonderful experiences of Sewa in the Asian Voice only recently, sleepwalking into promoting "hatred"?
So, one may ask, wise reader, where is the real source of the deception being exposed? Sewa, or Awaaz?
There's more to the saga that this. Some will remember the high profile story which Channel 4 ran back in December 2002. Aside from Adam Patel, they also made use of another lord, Megnad Desai, a born Hindu with a reputation among Hindus as anti-Hindu and Chetan Bhatt, an academic who seems to have made a career out of "Hindu fundamentalism".
These are the experts on whom Channel 4 relied to dissect, package and present "Hindu Terror". This is an excerpt of how I reported it in an article in this paper in December 2002:
"For a news item, the imagery and innuendo on the 7 p.m. news of 12 December was truly amazing. For consider the following:
1. The deliberate close up of deities in a Hindu temple and the chink-chink sound of loose change going into the collection boxes. The use of unsuspecting worshippers to create a malicious portrayal of Hindus as terrorists and accomplices to terrorists.
2. Cleverly crafted images of India - edited to give the viewer an image of the bow and arrow wielding "radicalised" forest dwellers and the "saffron clad" urbanites, juxtaposed amidst rubble and "minorities". The first two are patently depicted as the aggressors, and the last as the victims.
3. The extensive exposure to retired Justice Sawant, who implicates Hindu organisations in their entirety for the violence that erupted in Gujarat. No reference to the underlying causes. Orwellian logic at its best: violence occurred, some Hindus were involved, some may have connections with Hindu organisations, so the viewers have to accept Sawant's conclusion that Hindus as a corpus are culpable.
4. Images of damage to a mosque and reportage of killings. One would think that only mosques were damaged and only Muslims were victims. No Hindus lost their lives, no temples were attacked.
5. The insinuation that forest dwellers are being "converted" by "a communal philosophy" to Hinduism and that, for Hindus to care about the neediest in India is wrong. Not OK for Hindus to help their countrymen.
6. The truncated footage of various spokespeople from Sewa, Kalyan Ashram, HSS, RSS, showing them in a defensive light, making out that they are the aggressors, with something to hide.
7. The selective footage accorded to Desai, Bhatt, and Patel. Desai loses no opportunity in calling the HSS "fascist". How can Channel 4 argue with a man who sees "fascism" and "fundamentalism" in servants of India like Sardar Patel and Rajendra Prasad? Bhatt is shown as a studious academic, conveying an air of "independent inquiry".
8. Patel in his own way, loses no opportunity to convey the self-righteous, peace-loving image of the victim whilst having previously labelled as "racist" those with whom he disagrees.
9. A perverted sense of Channel 4 logic whereby the openly known fact that Sewa uses the HSS charity registration and therefore the two are connected, is depicted as if this was precisely the way in which the connection was hidden."
It is over two weeks since Sewa have been exonerated. Have Channel 4 reported this? Have they admitted that their 2002 story was flawed and that it undermined the good work of Sewa simply on the basis of hearsay? Have they done any further reporting into the details? Will they go back to Desai and Bhatt and ask them to explain? Will Channel 4 put these two experts on "Hindu fundamentalism" on the spot and quiz them about their political ideologies?
More importantly, will Channel 4 now give the volunteer workers at Sewa, both here and in India, the opportunity to put the record straight, in their own words? Will Channel 4 visit Gujarat? Will they make the voices and faces of the thousands of beneficiaries - Hindus, Muslims, forest dwellers, villagers, and city folk alike, heard and seen on the airwaves? Or will they sweep the tabloid job which they did upon Hindus in December 2002 under the carpet?
All in all, the attack on Sewa is seen by most Hindus as an attack on Hindus. Hindus are angry. Just because they do not burn books, run blockades of theatres and TV studios or riot in the streets does not mean that they are slovenly or supine. The aftermath of the Sewa investigation is already acting as a trigger for a peaceful, proud, hard-working people who have integrated into British society to demand their rights as citizens. This includes the simple right to respect, the right to not have their values, traditions and religion ridiculed. The right to help fellow Hindus - (yes, Hindus!) in need, be they in India or elsewhere, without being called despicable names like "fascist", especially from those who sit in ivory towers and pore over each others circular arguments without ever venturing to the front lines of the real world and serving those in real need.
In short, Hindus expect the simple courtesy to have the good that they do as members of society to at least be acknowledged for what it is, and not be compared with real sources of hatred and terror.
Getting back to Lord Patel, he was unable to substantiate his original allegations against Sewa International when the Asian Voice/Gujarat Samachar approached him in 2002. Even today, he has nothing to say other than express his dissatisfaction at the Charity Commission's findings. So far as it is possible to make out, despite the passage of time, Lord Patel has not taken the opportunity to find out for himself the work that Sewa Bharati has done with the funds raised by Sewa International. If so, the words on the Awaaz site used to criticise the Charity Commission, "a wasted opportunity!" would seem to apply so aptly to Lord Patel.
It is a travesty that by his actions, Lord Patel has so publicly dented the confidence of British Indians who work tirelessly to build bridges across the religious divide in an already fragmented society. Does he, in his own mind, think that community relations have improved as a result of his actions?
If not, then it would be right for Lord Patel to apologise. But this is not in the gift of every man. Admitting error takes courage and conscience.
It is to be sincerely hoped that this dirty episode should not sour friendships and that the excellent brotherhood that exist between Gujaratis - Hindus and Muslims still prevails.
The work that Sewa do, shows that this is not a sectarian issue and it should not be made into one. Talking of Rahim, a Krishna devotee, Sant Kabeer puts is so well in a Doha, "Rahiman kahe Dhaga ek prem ka, na todo kichi kai, toote se phir yeh na joode, joode to gaanth pad jaaye" - Says Rahim, friendship is like a thread, don't break it, for if you do, tie it as you will, it will not rejoin, a knot will but remain.
As ever, let Hindus and Muslims, all Gujarati Indians, continue to join hands in celebration. Jovial "hazals" can intermingle with thought provoking, spiritual poetry, all of it touching on that eternal force which binds humans together. And, to cap it all, everyone can stand together in respect of Saraswati Vandana, not out of a sense of affiliation to any narrow religious dogma, but in recognition of the universal, divine gift of creativity.
Neither those at Awaaz nor Desai
may ever understand this, but Channel 4, and perhaps, Lord Patel will?
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