RSS criticises report on misuse of donations

Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 28, 2004
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/525181.cms

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has taken strong objection to a report released by Awaaz, a UK-based organisation, which has claimed that donations made by British citizens for the Gujarat earthquake and the Orissa cyclone were actually being used to sponsor anti-minority violence.
 
A RSS statement said on Friday, "We strongly object to the propaganda unleashed by persons and organisations hitherto unknown, against the RSS and organisations connected with it like the Seva Bharati, making wild and false allegations of misuse of funds received from abroad."
 
It further said, "Seva Bharati is an organisation registered with the government in different states and guided by Indian laws. Every single penny received by Seva Bharati from within or outside India is judiciously spent on the causes for which it has been collected. The RSS and the organisations connected with it enjoy tremendous amount of credibility and goodwill in matters relating to social service and social reconstruction etc."
 
The report in question, said the RSS statement, is full of distortions and untruths, often bordering on mischief. The RSS said the report alleges that the RSS had constructed schools with the money collected from abroad. "We fail to understand how it is a crime to construct schools in villages. In fact, some of these schools have minorities on their rolls -Muslims as well as Christians," the statement said.
 
Refuting the charge that the donations were used for funding anti-minority violence, the statement said Seva Bharati had run one of its relief camps from a mosque in a village called Hajipur, in Bhuj. In two of the six villages reconstructed with financial aid from the Seva International, all the Muslims who were originally residing there, were provided houses along with the others. In Chapredi (Bhuj) village, nine Muslims families were given houses while in Vachhrajpura (Anjar), four Muslim families got new houses.
 

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