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Action Aid is a British multinational in the child sponsorship business but is technically registered as a "charity". It has a significant presence in India, both directly and through link/sponsored/satellite agencies/companies, and receives support not just from the British government but from the IAS and some Indian governments. Its India operations are headed by Mr. Harsh Mander, whose "resignation" last year from the IAS after the Gujarat violence made him a hero in our secular English-language media. Subsequently, Mr. Mander's resignation was exposed to be a deliberate lie*, and Action Aid's politico-communal agenda in India was revealed.**
In the evidence of the latter was Mander/Action Aid consciously choosing to focus only on communal victims of one religion and, specifically, of totally ignoring the far worse and much longer ongoing "ethnic cleansing" of the KP community from its homeland Kashmir.
However, about a year after that charge was first made, an e-appeal dated 19- 3-03 (reproduced below) directed at "the citizens of Delhi" appeared to have issued from the Action Aid-supported Delhi-based Aman Ekta Manch for "a fortnight-long campaign to raise funds and other essential items" for a "Kashmiri migrant camp in Delhi".
This is gratifying, showing that sustained effort for now over a year, pointing out the double standards of our country's conscience-keepers exemplified by the ubiquitous Mr Harsh Mander and people like him***, has forced at least the secular organizations that are linked in the Aman Ekta Manch to recognise, albeit obliquely, refugees from communal violence in Kashmir.
Harsh Mander/Action Aid and supporting people/organizations (like Hashmi/ SAHMAT) have been using the Gujarat tragedy to promote a politico- communal agenda supported by suspect foreign donors and, when I pointed out some of the lies, self-promotion, arrogance and double standards involved, Mander's champions could respond only with emotionalism attacks in emails to me.
It is to be hoped that this new initiative of theirs is not mere tokenism resulting from a need to pay lip-service to that public opinion which is concerned equally about victims of ALL communal violence as it is of the victims in Gujarat, and that it will be followed promptly by a campaign that shows for victims of ALL communal violence in South Asia the same approach of contextualisation, moral anguish, zeal and missionary fervor worldwide that these secular activists showed for Gujarat.
I say this because, regrettably, this appeal appears to follow a familiar pattern refined by Mr. Harsh Mander, whose sensational and provocative claims were invariably followed by muted retractions and turnarounds. After his own admission in a BBC interview in November of the communal focus and politics of his Gujarat enterprise, one fears this appeal is a ruse to seek wider acceptability for himself and his organization. Unlike Mander/Action Aid for Gujarat, this appeal confines itself to a refugee camp at their doorstep in Delhi, to the "citizens of Delhi", to a specifically closed schedule (no contributions accepted after April 5), and connects the refugees "to violence unleashed on them by militants before and after the recent assembly election" thus glossing over and decontextualisng these victims from the long and steady "ethnic cleansing" of the Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) from Kashmir still rotting in camps in Jammu which is about the same distance as Ahmedabad from Action Aid headquarters in Delhi.
Tellingly and typically, the slaughter of KPs at Nadimarg during the pendency of the Manch appeal did not appear to disturb unduly the secular equanimity of Mander/ActionAid or the Manch and its links. Action Aid and the Manch did join up with Dr Syeda Hameed's Muslim Women's Forum in standing opposite a luxury hotel in New Delhi to express solidarity with KPs, and Mr Mander was a signatory in Dr Hameed's Group of Concerned Citizens that issued a solidarity statement through Sabrang. However, two appeals for specific action going beyond emotionalist, politically correct, secular rhetoric by these agencies were met with silence.****
Moreover, the Manch itself appears to be a shadowy entity - it collects money but, though asked, does not state its legal status nor the names of its office- bearers (Mander is closely associated with it in many web references), and it uses a c/o postal address. Worse, the British "charity" that Mander represents continues its dual communal policy, one for India and another for Pakistan and Bangladesh, with its British trustees remaining silent when asked whether supporting (only Godhra) criminal accused in India is part of its charitable objectives.
For all the criticism hurled at me by Mr. Mander's champions, at least my endeavor provoked the attention of Mander/Action Aid to Kashmir, was obviously instrumental towards the positive if limited intentions contained in the Manch appeal and, with former senior Action Aid executive Mr. Binu Thomas, forced Mr Mander to recognize the public lie of his resignation. It will be a sad - but unsurprising - denouement if the Aman Ekta Manch relief appeal turns out to be another self-serving trick up the sleeve of this British quisling whom our country's English-language press and page 3 secular activists collaborate with to deify.
* see, for example, "An Open Letter to Harsh Mander, Country Director, Action Aid India" at
www.vigilonline.com/news/whats_new/harsh_mander.htm
** see, for example, "Conspiracy of silence" at http://www.hvk.org/articles/ 0103/211.html
*** see, for example, "`Hindustan Hamara': Big People and Double Standards" at
http://esamskriti.com/html/inside.asp?cat=643&subcat=642&cname=hindustan
and especially the attachments to "Mr. Harsh Mander and His Beloved Country" at http://216.26.190.67/feedback/anal013e.htm
**** copied at http://www.india.indymedia.org/ front.php3?article_id=4310&group=webcast
(Krishen Kak was in the IAS, and is a cultural anthropologist)
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From: Aman Ekta Manch <peopleforpeace@rediffmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 10:41 PM
To:.................
Subject: Relief Appeal
Aman Ekta Manch Campaign to raise funds for Kashmiri migrant camp in Delhi
Urgent help is required for a camp of about 600 families who have fled their homes in Kashmir recently due to violence unleashed on them by militants before and after the recent assembly election. The camp is located in Shastri Park (near Buland Masjid) in East Delhi, where hundreds of make-shift shelters house about 3000 people of whom almost 75% are women and children (including a large number of widows and orphans). Significantly, the camp has both Hindu and Muslim families (about 30% are Muslims) living together in harmony.
The Delhi Government has helped
a little by providing some land for them to put up their shelters (although
the Metro construction activity has pushed them back, so that several families
now have to share the same shelter), some shelter material, an occasional
water tanker and an interim compensation of Rs.1100 per family per month,
within which they have to meet all their expenses of shelter, fuel, clothing,
food etc. Despite all efforts to earn as much as possible by working in
the mandis, stitching for local people and sending young boys and girls
to all parts of the city to appeal for help, the camp has been virtually
on the verge of starvation. There has been some help from individuals and
institutions, but much greater mobilization of voluntary assistance is
required just to keep them from starving, leave alone deal with numerous
health problems likely to arise with the onset of summer and poor hygienic
conditions. Until concrete steps towards rehabilitation materialize, such
as interest-free loans to re-start their business of carpet weaving etc
or compensation commensurate with the yield-value of their property (such
as orchards and agricultural land), citizens of Delhi need to rally around
and help them in every possible way to tide over this crisis.
Aman Ekta Manch plans to have a fortnight-long campaign to raise funds and other essential items. Cash donations and cheques drawn in the name of Aman Ekta Manch will be accepted against receipts. Cheques should say "For Kashmiri Migrants" on the back. Cash and cheques
must be delivered/sent to the following
address only: Aman Ekta Manch,
C/oJagori C-54 South Extension
Part II (top floor), New Delhi 110054.
In addition, the following items
may be deposited at any of the following places:
a) Sahmat office (8, V.P. House,
Rafi Marg, New Delhi, Ph no: 23351424, Contact person: Mr. Ashok, collection
between 10 am to 5 pm, closed on Sunday)
b) Indian Social Institute (ISI
Residence Reception, 21 Institutional Area, Lodhi Road, behind Sai Baba
Mandir, Ph no: 24625015, 24622379, open 24 hours, all days)
c) Vidyajyoti (4A Rajniwas Marg,
Delhi-110054, Near St Xavier's School, Ph no: 23947609, 23943556, Contact
person: Fr. T.K. John, collection between 8 am to 7 pm, all days)
ITEMS
1. Rice/ Atta/ Sugar (in sealed
1 Kg. packs)
2. Dal-Chana, masoor or moong (" " " " ")
3. Mustard oil (in sealed 1 litre packs)
4. Haldi, salt, red chilly powder
5. Tea leaves (in sealed pkts. of 250gms.)
6. Clothes, footwear in reasonably good condition
7. Sheets, old curtains, chatais,
daris
The campaign will end on: 5th April,
2003. Please note that we cannot accept any contributions after this date.
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