New Delhi: After a search operation by the Income Tax Department at Delhi-based think tank Center for Policy Research and charity organization Oxfam India, questions have been raised again about their management and funding. The curiosity in this matter is also increasing because the Income Tax Department has remained silent till now.
It may take a little longer for investigators to fix all aspects of the puzzle as analyzing and linking financial data from previous years is not an easy task. Hence, it becomes interesting to find out the reasons behind this unusual move of the Income Tax Department to crack down on this high-profile think tank and charity organization.
The department has also searched Bengaluru-based Independent and Public-Spirit Media Foundation (IPSMF), which is known for funding other media platforms such as The Caravan, The Wire, HW News Network, Article 14 and The Citizen. In this excerpt, let us first understand the contours of CPR and IPSMF.
Policy Research Center
For years, for their agenda-driven research topics by researchers with links to other institutions and institutions, the think tank has been talking about CPR, which poses a similar question to the developed countries where their mentors are based. Known not to.
On Friday, the CPR said, “CPR, as one of the 24 research institutes of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICCSR) network, has all the necessary approvals and approvals, which are provided by the government to the recipient under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. as authorized.” Other statements even included common phrases such as ‘full cooperation’ and ‘highest standards of compliance’, ‘did nothing wrong’ and ‘committed to our mission’, which were used liberally by the Sentinel. Is.
Although it has easily named ICCSR in its statement, CPR remained silent about foreign funding, which is much higher than domestic funds. For example, a closer look at the annual report of CPR for the financial year 2019-20 shows that it received donations of Rs 32,81,51,528 from abroad, which is almost from the domestic fund of Rs 4,13,09,689. eight times more.
During the financial years 2015-16 and 2020-21, CPR is estimated to receive foreign grants of around Rs.100 crore for ‘educational purpose’ only. But the interesting thing is that CPR is not run by any educational or educational institution.
CPR’s website states, “CPR brings together India’s best thinkers and policy practitioners who are at the forefront of both research and engagement in policy, and come from diverse disciplines and professional backgrounds.”
However, this ‘faculty’, ‘faculty emeritus’ and ‘researchers’ list includes people who are often associated with foreign institutions and institutions. Therefore, the Government of India is advised to see that sensitive data and information of the country does not fall into foreign hands through so-called scholars. After all, CPR representatives enjoy easy access to data and information in addition to networking with policy makers under the guise of research. Thus, if foreign journalists wishing to report from India have to go through a clearly defined clearance process, then there is no justification that researchers associated with CPR or any other think tank should be allowed to enter India without investigation. be allowed!
The basic objective of ICCSR and Government of India in policy making was to benefit from such think tanks. Instead, some think tanks appear to be a tool for foreign powers to dominate India’s policy making and change their policies to benefit from the Indian situation. As such, the profiles of people and their areas of interest should be carefully examined in CPR.
Let us now return to the contentious issue of foreign funding in CPR. Some notable international patrons of CPR and their respective contributions are listed at the end of this article. Namati makes a peculiar case when it comes to the allegiance of the nearly five-decade-old CPR, which is led by Yamini Iyer, daughter of senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar. Funded by George Soros, the Open Society Foundation is a founding member of Namati. Soros has a history of destabilizing economies in developing countries, funding protests, and even provoking outright wars.
Notably, CPR is Namati’s only paralegal partner in India. This means there is a potential violation of FCRA as Namati is funding legal cases in India through CPR, which is supposed to engage only in research and educational activities.
This is not the first time that the governance standards of CPR have been questioned. Earlier in 2015, Delhi Police filed a criminal complaint against CPR, for breach of trust in a recruitment scam at the Airport Authority of India (AAI). The CPR had deviated from its original objective of setting up an Examination Cell. Whereas AAI had hired CPR to conduct examinations, to recruit staff handling sensitive tasks in the Aviation Authority. However, allegations of tampering of test results in favor of some candidates surfaced and CPR decided to close down the examination cell immediately.
Independent and public-spirited media foundation
Now coming to the role of the IPSMF, which provides a bouquet of media platforms to enhance the content generated by CPR in the name of research, with the aim of changing opinion in favor or against government policies in line with its own agenda. So a simple Google search will provide insight into this nexus. So let’s return to George Soros who also promoted the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) through the Soros Economic Development Fund. Interestingly, MDIF Investment Director Coril Lahiri was the Chief Operating Officer at IPSMF before joining MDIF in 2017.
The following is a list of international organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Oak Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. We’ll talk more about them as we look at Oxfam’s affairs. After all, their association in India is not limited to CPR alone. Oxfam India is also one of the beneficiary of these ‘patrons’.
Some International Patrons of CPR
Funding in six years (in Rs.)
Namati – 11,55,15,432
Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation – 40,71,69,048
Ford Foundation – 17,06,87,398
Omidyar Network – 8,04,52,140
William & Flora Hewlett Foundation (HP Foundation) – 7,10,80,750
MacArthur Foundation – 4,00,41,060
CIFF – 3,08,36,879
Oak Foundation – 2,45,42,926
Asia Foundation – 69,76,540
(( This article is a Hindi translation of an English article by Binay Kumar Singh, Senior Research Fellow, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Research Foundation. Click here to read the English article —