A Repository of Important Documents about AID
Table of Contents
Com.
Sitaram Yechury explains the relationship between AIPSN and CPI(M) Project proposal of a NGO funded by Association
For India's "Development" AID
organizes an event with Taliban
supporting Islamist "Allah will destroy terrorist state
of India" Pakistan
American Alliance forced to remove hate
picture from site- Purpose
- Documents
2.1 Fund Only DYFI Libraries
2.2 Marx For Beginners for Children, no to story books
2.3 AID Flip-Flop
2.4 Sandeep Pandey (ASHA Founder) at Naxalite Conference
2.5 About AID
2.6 "DYFI does not receive funds from AID"
2.8 AID co-sponsors an event with CAIR
2.9 AID chapters host talks by a Marxist ideologue
2.10 AID takes care of DYFI's fund problem
2.11 How to match donations without paying a dime
2.12 Article in a Houston weekly accuses AID of "AIDing & abetting communists"
2.13 Sandeep Pandey gives a talk in PSU AID chapter's retreat
2.14 Yet another AID report admitting it sent money to DYFI
2.15 AID claims it has no long term plans to work with DYFI
2.16 AID to adopt two villages with DYFI and SFI
2.17 An excerpt from the CPI(ML) manifesto
2.18 AID starts a centre with the help of "DYFI Nagraj"
2.19 AID leadership sends a desperate letter to volunteers, urges supporters to infiltrate mailing lists
2.20 AID to fund Sandeep Pandey's march to Pakistan
2.21 AID chapters to provide $6500 for Sandeep Pandey's padyatra
2.22 Budget for Sandeep Pandey's padyatra
2.23 Sandeep Pandey's views on Kashmir
2.24 Pakistan stops "peaceniks" at the border
2.25 AID disables archiving of critical webpages by search engines
2.26 AID and other radical organizations call US an "imperialist" power
2.27 "Allah will destroy terrorist state of India"
2.28 FOSA removes references to Pakistan American Alliance. Google cache of 17th May exposes the fraud.
2.29 FOSA admits fraud, claims it was "was not fully aware of PAA’s politics"
2.31 Pakistan American Alliance removes picture from site
2.32 TNSF's ideology explained
2.32 Some emails in a Marxist mailing list about Indian "Science Forums"
2.33 A Strategic patnership with CPI(M)
2.34 "Alternatives"/CPI(ML) do a FOSA? Change information about domain with an intention to deceive?
2.35 AID organizes an event with a Taliban supporting Islamist
2.36 Comrade Sitaram Yechury explains AIPSN's relationship with CPI(M)
- Financial Details
- Media
3.1 Project proposal of a NGO funded by Association For India's "Development"
Purpose
AID India documents which AID higher ups find embarrasing have the habit of dissappearing. We have attempted to store some such articles here and also articles from other sites that have useful information about AID.Description: An AID document describing the status of the much vaunted 50 block plan a project funded in part by AID.
Content: This document has generated much controversy because of this statement of Balaji Sampath (emphasis ours) :
| We should have a minimum of 2000 registered libraries for viability. All health and credit groups of Samam would be registered. As a policy encourage libraries only where linked to such an activity or to an active TNSF/AIDWA/DYFI/PWA group or activist. Start only with Samam or TNSF but at local level keep the scheme open for other organizations also. |
Source:
AID website (google cache,
see top portion of the document for URL). Link not
permanent.
Date Archived: 28th December 2004
Useful Info: TNSF is Tamil Nadu Science Forum run by prominent AID India leader Balaji Sampath. AIDWA is All India Democratic Womens Association, the womens wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), DYFI , Democratic Youth Foundation of India is the youth wing of Communist Party of India (Marxist). PWA is the Progessive Writers Association, an association of Marxist and other leftist writers.
Date Archived: 28th December 2004
Useful Info: TNSF is Tamil Nadu Science Forum run by prominent AID India leader Balaji Sampath. AIDWA is All India Democratic Womens Association, the womens wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), DYFI , Democratic Youth Foundation of India is the youth wing of Communist Party of India (Marxist). PWA is the Progessive Writers Association, an association of Marxist and other leftist writers.
Description : A collection of AID Dallas Chapter Emails
Content : In this document a prominent AID leader in India tells volunteers volunteers what kind of books to send for an ongoing AID project, again this is a controversial document because given the document, allegations of use of AID funds for Marxist indoctrination cannot be ignored. Scroll to page 21, (all emphasis ours)
|
Abt purchasing books in second
hand
shops: (a) Never purchase children’s books (story books, etc) - it is not easy to tell which is useful and which is not. (b) Purchase all the following: (first two very good and useful) ---> All books (multiple copies ok) by Micheal Apple, Ivan Ilich (Deeschooling Scoeity and After Deschooling),
Philippe Aries (Social
history
of Childhood), John Holt, Maria Montessori,Danger:School, and all books on educational expts (the ones that fight against the system of education, not for it) in the US. ---> All Cartoon Books in the Beginners series - Marx for beginners, Budhha for Beginners, Trotsky for beginners, Einstien for beginners, Totstoy for beginners, Freud for beginners, Lenin for beginners, Ecology for beginners, etc. Just get any of these books. |
Date Archived: 27th December,2004
Source: AID website (see top of document for URL).
Useful Info: Michael Apple is a professor of education in Wisconsin, well known for his leftist/progressive viewpoints, more about Ivan Illich here, the book Deschooling Society is available online, more on Philippe Aries and her book Social History of children here, Marx for Beginners is cartoon book which introduces Marxist thought to children in an easy to understand format, similar statement holds for other books in the beginner series. Almost all of the books mentioned in the relevant email concerning social issues have a strong leftist tilt.
Description: AID deleted references to DYFI. The complete story here
Description: Not directly about AID, but about another favorite of AID leadership, Sandeep Pandey. The famous rediff article does not convince many, for them here is the truth straight from the horses mouth, from CPI(ML)'s mouthpiece liberation.
Content: The liberation article clearly mentions that
| Renowned NAPM activist and Magassassay Award winner Sandeep Pandey stressed the need of unity of revolutionary communist organisations like CPI(ML) and social movements to take on fascist danger. |
Date Archived: 6 January,2005
Source: CPI(ML) website.
Useful Info:
Description : A friend of a former AID volunteer raises some interesting questions about AID's financial practices in Bharat Rakshak forum
Content: Here is an excerpt from the post (we have not reproduced personal attacks against certain AID leaders, the archive above contains the complete post, note that this is the opinion of a person claiming to be knowledgable about AID)
Source: Bharat Rakshak Forum
Description: AID FAQ claims that they do not give money to AID.
Content: After the controversy about AID's connection to DYFI, AID added this to their FAQ(emphasis ours) :
| Q.
How does AID work with other groups on the
field? Is
AID associated with DYFI? In Tamil Nadu, AID is sending funds through AID-India which has taken up massive coordination work with several groups on the ground. This includes reputed science movements such as Tamil Nadu Science Forum, Pondicherry Science Forum, community health organizations involved in the People's Health Movement, local women's and youth organizations, advocacy groups such as India Together and Environment Support Group, and individuals from various companies and groups. The tremendous coordination work involved is described in the detailed report written by Dr. Balaji Sampath, one of our chief full-time organizers in India. www.aidindia.org/updates/6.html There have been questions about the mention of DYFI (Democratic Youth Federation of India) in some of the reports, in light of their political affiliations. Firstly, note that DYFI does not receive any funds either from AID or AID-India. It is one of the youth organizations whose volunteers are involved in the relief work. Secondly, as described above, AID-India is working with a variety of groups on the ground, and our approach is described in the report from AID Jeevansaathi Dr. Balaji Sampath. "At this point I would like to add that the enormity of the problem is so much that one must try and work with every sincere group that is doing work on the field, whether NGOs, Govt, local unions and organizations, or other youth and women's organizations and even groups that might have some political affiliations. One cannot afford to be fussy about working with different groups (as long as they are sincere and work efficiently). What matters now is reaching relief and rehabilitation to all those whoneed it." Thirdly, people with questions about any particular group should understand the entire context in which the work is going on, as described in the above report. For example, AID-India organized about 350 volunteers to pick up unattended corpses and dispose them, while noone was willing to do this work a couple of days earlier. In a remarkable incident, FOUR days after the tsunami, volunteers rescued 3 people who were alive under the debris; AID-India volunteers worked alongside DYFI volunteers to accomplish this. We are in constant touch with our grassroots workers in AID Chennai, who are developing and evaluating their interactions with various groups in light of the dire need of volunteers at the grassroots. To re-iterate, DYFI does not receive any funds either from AID or AID-India. It is only that volunteers of DYFI are participating in the immediate relief efforts, which are co-ordinated by AID Chennai. |
Date Archived: January 8, 2004
Note: Mr. Balaji Sampath says, "One cannot afford to be fussy about working with different groups (as long as they are sincere and work efficiently). What matters now is reaching relief and rehabilitation to all those who need it." We are impressed that Mr Sampath is not fussy about working with DYFI, an organization he likes so much that he refuses to use AID's money to fund libraries not linked to it or to organizations closely related to it.
Description: Balaji Sampath has claimed in the AID FAQ that he is not sending money to DYFI, in this document he clearly mentions providing them with funds. What is the truth?
Content: Balaji writes (emphasis ours)
| Locally DYFI and TNSF have collected some materials and started the distribution. We have sent them some immediate funds and I will be taking more funds and relief materials with me today. |
Date Archived: January 7,2004
Source: medico-international website
Description: CAIR is an organization known for the extreme views of its leaders. One person strongly associated with CAIR has been sent to jail for being a member of the Lashkar E Toyiba and has been sentenced to twenty years in jail for illegally acquiring firearms and explosives in order to train for terrorist missions against India in Kashmir. Amazingly an organization describing itself as Association for India's Development India co sponsored an event with them. For more details click here
Description: Many AID chapters organized a talk by Dr. Parameshwaran, "a strong believer in Gandhian, Marxist and Socialist philosophies" as he has been described in the AID document. Among other things, Dr. Parameshwaran is credited with building the All India Peoples Science Network, an organization with stong links with CPI(M). Dr. Parameshwaran was a member of the CPI(M) till February 2004 (the talk took place in 2003) when he was expelled from the CPI(M) following theological differences with the party. In many cases AID chapters have borne transportation and other costs for organizing talks in their chapter, AID almost never mentions that it organizes such talks using during their fundraisers.
Description: An article by a pro-AID journalist Amit Varma..
The following excerpt is especially illuminating
| DYFI is a grassroots level organisation, and it has hordes of volunteers who have scattered themselves all across the state. Dr Narasimhan, the doctor who was doing such a brave job at Nagapattinam, is one of them. DYFI suffers from the drawback of not having a high profile and, consequently, having rather low funds. But AID takes care of that. |
Surprisingly, Mr. Varma forgets to mention that DYFI is an affiliate of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Description: Sulekha recently claimed to match donations made to AID, dollar by dollar. When a company claims to match your contribution dollar for dollar what exactly do they mean? Especially if they send you send an email which says
|
SULEKHA.COM-AID TSUNAMI
RELIEF FUND: Your Contributions Matched Dollar-for-Dollar URL: http://www.sulekha.com/aid |
You assume, of course, that the company will contribute one dollar for each dollar of yours. Alas, you missed the fine print. All that Sulekha did was create two funds, one for AID and another "matching donations fund", then it diverted some donations to the "matching donations fund", and then used it to match the donations. Simple and brilliant isn't it? Why not have a single fund, why this charade of mixing , matching and taking credit for other peoples genorosity?
All this blew up in the face of AID when a blogger got angry and wrote this
|
AID was forced to put a clarification on its website. Sulekha is unruffled.
Excerpt:
| AID is also working
with the Students Federation of India (SFI) to rebuild two
villages in Tamil Nadu. SFI is the student wing (not to be
confused with the “youth” wing: DYFI) of the CPI-M,
and it has been involved in not only violent and criminal
activities like DYFI, but has even displayed treacherous
tendencies. Here’s another list detailing some of the
“grassroots” activities of SFI: In December, 2004, SFI voted against a resolution condemning China for repeatedly showing Arunachal Pradesh as not being a part of India at the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union meeting. In August, 2002, SFI cadres beat up students belonging to Rabindra Bharati University for being “inappropriately dressed”. In July, 2002, SFI students were allegedly behind an article appearing in a college magazine in Kerala that praised Osama bin Laden as the “crusader of the poor Muslims the world over”. In September, 2001, 31 SFI activists were arrested on charges of “public property destruction, unlawful assembly and violation of the Explosives Act”. |
Date Archived: 31st December 2004
Excerpt:
| Sandeep Pandey (one of the founders of ASHA)
was in Princeton for a 6 month fellowship studying nuclear
disarmament related issues. We had been trying to schedule his
talk at Penn State for a long time and were lucky to have him
there that Saturday. Sandeep, who finished his PhD in 1992, went back
to India and was a faculty member at IIT Kanpur for a short
period before his "extra-curricular" activities caused problems
with the administration. So he quit and now works on a
wide range of issues related to education. His group has set up
education centers guided by the philosophy that students need
affection, interest etc. and that competition is not necessary
for education to succeed. Unfortunately, his schedule was
extremely tight and cut short what promised to be a very
interesting Q&A session. |
One of Sandeep's extra curricular activities is discussed here
Date Archived : 2nd February 2005
Excerpt:
| Ranganathan
from Vidyarambam left yesterday from Chennai with a
van load of clothes and relief materials. Locally DYFI and TNSF have collected some materials and started the distribution. We have sent them some immediate funds and I will be taking more funds and relief materials with me today. |
Source: ASHA UIUC Chapter website
Description : AID protests article in India Herald, claims it is not involved in any long term project with DYFI.
Excerpt:
| AID and other volunteers working with AID helped clear dead bodies and helped the survivors cope in many ways including construction of short term shelters. Beyond this relief phase, AID has no plans of collaborating with DYFI or SFI. |
Description: AID is planning to adopt two villages along with DYFI and SFI according to a rediff report.
Excerpt:
| AID India, an organisation I can't praise highly enough for their unflagging relief work in the state, have taken a pragmatic approach, tying up with anyone who shares their vision and work ethic. They have adopted two villages in this area, Pudupettai and Pudukubbam, in association with DYFI and another group called the Students Federation of India. |
Comment : It will be interesting to see how AID "adopts" two villages with DYFI and SFI
- without providing funds and resources to DYFI
- without accepting resources from DYFI
Description: The "party program" of an organization that counts Sandeep Pandey as one its supporters
Excerpt:
| To accomplish people's democratic revolution in a vast and complex country like India, a communist party has to be especially skillful in mastering and combining various forms of struggle and every available avenue of work. The Party therefore strives to develop a comprehensive revolutionary practice through an organic combination of illegal and legal, secret and open and extra-parliamentary and parliamentary forms of struggle and organisation. |
Comment: It should be clear from the above that the CPI(ML) is not a mainstream political party.
Description: An email sent to AID Bangalore listserv.
Excerpt:
| In
this road, there is a oil and lubricant shop on the right which
is the place we had planned to assemble. I was there exactly at
7pm and surprised to see no one!. After 10 minsDYFI Nagaraj joined me. Since we
didn't see any students there, we drove inside to the place
identified for the center. There were only 2 students standing in
front of the center. We got the key and opened the center to see
that there is no light inside it. |
Source : AID website
URL: Provided at top of the document.
Description: A desperate email sent by AID leadership
Excerpt: Amusing letter sent by AID leadership whose first few lines go like this
| Action
Requested: Share
judiciously with active volunteers; be cautious not to send to general
donor/supporter lists |
and contains this advice
| At each chapter, we
should
make a concerted effort
to become members of local listservs of various organizations
(student bodies, cultural organizations, places of worship etc).
Then we can post positive reports about our work, as well as
counter any negative propaganda. |
and attempts to rally the faithful
| We
should NOT get caught up in the negativity, lose energy and think that we are under
siege. The fact is that AID has got tremendous positive
response from the community, and they can see our very good work
through our reports, etc. This kind of propaganda has happened to
AID in the past, and even more intensively against Asha etc, and
we still continue to flourish and attract great volunteers and
donors! |
Description: AID to fund Sandeep Pandey's march to Multan
| A peace march starts from New Delhi, India on March 23rd and is planned to wind its way through to reach Multan, Pakistan on May 11th, 2005. ... Lead by Karamat Ali ... and Anjuman Asiaye Awam in Pakistan and Sandeep Pandey, Admiral Ramdas, Lalita Ramdas, in India ... AID Saathi Jatin Desai is also part of the march. |
| The estimated budget of Rs. 8.3 lakhs to cover the expenses of the India leg of the march has only received Rs. 2.6 lakhs in pledges. Hence this appeal for funds. |
| Funds
approved by Houston chapter … $1000.00 Funds approved by Minnesota chapter … $1000.00 Funds requested from Common Pool … $3000.00 Funds requested from chapters … any amount the chapter deems fit |
Description: An AID email.
Category: Informational
This is to give an update on the AID funding for the
peace
march.
(1) AID-Houston has
approved $3500, AID-MN $1000 and AID-College Park $1000.
AID-Austin have sent $1000 from their volunteers' contribution
fund - which is not officially part of AID funds, but in spirit
is support from Austin chapter.
(2) Significant directed donations have been
raised for the
march, including $3500 by Houston chapter, since the fundraising
is also part of awareness building for the peace
activities.
(3) In view of the chapter approvals, the chapters
have
decided that an appropriate level of funding has been reached,
and the Common Pool funds are no longer needed. AID-MN and
AID-Houston informed EB that they are NOT requesting for common
pool funds. Therefore chapters do not need to discuss the common
pool proposal.
It is good to see the discussions on the forum about
AID's
peace efforts.
The peace march preparations are in full swing, and
project
coords from AID are in daily touch with the organizers. Answers
to most of the questions about the details of the march including
the budget have been obtained. Many useful inputs from AID
volunteers are being incorporated. It is hoped that this march
will lead to many useful projects and initiatives, as it will
bring us in touch with many grassroots groups and common people
all along the way.
In solidarity,
Kiran
|
Description : Budget for Sandeep Pandey's padayatra as provided by the yatra organizers to AID
|
Excerpt:
| Government should become more serious about the peace process in Kashmir and involve all the voices of Kashmir, however militant they might be. It is after all their land. It is neither Indian nor Pakistani land |
Excerpt:
The march from Delhi to Multan march might end in a fiasco.
| A peace march from New Delhi to
Multan might have to be called off as Pakistan has cited security
concerns to deny visas to the 22 Indians who are part of the
31-member group. The peaceniks were to have crossed into Pakistan from the Wagah land border Wednesday, but could not do so due to the lack of visas. |
Excerpt from the Sandeep Pandey interview (see previous item):
| What I had said [Aug.6 2002] was that in my experience of working on nuclear disarmament I had found Pakistan government more open and accessible to dialogue than Indian government. |
Comment: Note that the news report does not name the main Indian organizer of the march from Delhi to Multan, only the Pakistani ones. Perhaps the Rs. 200,000 could have been better spent.
Many AID pages now contain the tag
<meta
name="robots" content="noarchive"
/>
Google
does not return the cache of webpages with such a tag, quoting
from Google's advice to webmasters:|
7. How should I request that Google not return cached material from my site? Google stores many web
pages in
its cache to retrieve for users as a back-up in case the server
where the page resides temporarily fails. Users can view the
cached version by choosing the "Cached" link on the search
results page. If you don't want your content to be accessible
through Google's cache, use a <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOARCHIVE"> This tag tells robots not
to
archive the page. Google will continue to index and follow links
from the page, but will not present cached material to
users. |
Lots of pages on the AID website now carry the above tag. We have archived the html source of one such webpage: Tsunami Relief Work Report 4 by Dr. Balaji Sampath - AID's Tsunami Relief Campaign.
Note that
- The Google caching mechanism has embarassed AID previously. AID was caught changing contents of its website : AID deleted references to DYFI, a radical Marxist organization, from their website, the google cache clearly showed the webpages with references to DYFI. Check this link for details.
- After the deletion of references to DYFI was pointed out by various blogs and websites a red faced AID put back references to DYFI.
Excerpt:
|
Join us to:
Save the date! Come one, come all! SUPPORTING
ORGANIZATIONS
Friends of South Asia EKTA Association for India's Development (AID) - BayArea Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA) American Muslim Voice Pakistanis at Stanford Pakistan American Alliance |
Comment: AID raises almost all of its money in USA, significant number of AID donors are American citizens. Many of the organizations above are virulently anti Indian and anti Israel, for example the Pakistani American Alliance.
Description : The above is an archived page about a demonstration sponsored by the Pakistan American Alliance, an organization that supported AID funded "peace" march by Sandeep Pandey. The following picture leaves no doubt about what Pakistan American Alliance's supporters think about peace with India. Note the man holding a placard titled : Allah will destroy the terrorist state of India.
Comment: One has to wonder if AID's continued association with such organizations is merely due to poor judgement . As of 29, May 2005, the above picture was proudly displayed on the main page in Pakistan American American Alliance's website.
Description: As expected www.friendsofsouthasia.org has deleted references to Pakistan American alliance from their webpage on the peace march. Friends of South Asia (FOSA) leaders are known to be close to AID leaders. Google cache reveals the fraud.
Compare the following documents
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/events/indpakpeace/
- As on May 17th (as per google cache)
- As on May 22nd (our archive)
- As on May 30th (our archive)
- Google archive (updated on May 30)
Note that (1) and (2) are identical, all references to Pakistan American Alliance have been deleted from (3) (the latest document). Note that as of May 30th, the Trikone Calendar for 15th May 2005 still contains the reference to the this march in the exact same way as in (1) and (2) (seehttp://www.trikone.org/calendar/2005-05-15 , archived here). The Google crawler visited the website again on May 30th and hence (3) and (4) are identical.
To know which day Google took a snapshot of the page note that every Google cache has a line of the form
| This
is G o o g l e's cache of
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/events/indpakpeace/ as
retrieved on May 17, 2005 09:09:11 GMT. |
We are sure AID and FOSA will put tremendous pressure on trikone to remove references to Pakistan American alliance.
Description: FOSA claims to have removed PAA's cosponsorship of a March that took place on May15 on May29 (clearly a fraudulent act), as per remodified main page for the march.
| Note: Pakistan American Alliance(PAA) was added as a co-sponsor in the last few days leading to the event. However, due to some concerns about the beliefs espoused by PAA, based on information on their website, PAA has been withdrawn as a co-sponsor (on 05/29/05), and a clarification has been sought from them. Read FOSA's statement on the issue. |
Note: When PAA's hate filled ideology was brought to light by this website along with their co-sponsorship of a march in support of the AID funded Sandeep Pandey's "peace" march to Pakistan, FOSA responded by simply deleting references to PAA. As the archives on this website show : FOSA deleted references to PAA without any explanatory note, making it appear that PAA was never a co-sponsor. It appears that this website's exposure of the fraud prompted them to write the above note. However FOSA's belated realization about the nature of PAA is heart warming.
Description: As of 6 June 2005 the American Muslim Voice and Pakistan American Alliance, organizations that took part in the march organized by FOSA to support the AID sponsored Sandeep Pandey's "peace" march have the same contact phone numbers. Let us hope their views about India do not similarly coincide.
|
American Muslim Voice Phone: 650-387-1994 E-Mail: amvoice@amuslimvoice.org Website:www.amuslimvoice.org Webmaster:webmaster@amuslimvoice.org 39675 Cedar Blvd., Suite 295, Newark, CA 94560 |
||
|
Pakistan American Alliance P.O.Box 1489, Fremont CA 94538-9991 E Mail: pakalliance@pakalliance.org Phone: 650-387-1994 |
Description: Pakistan American Alliance has removed one hate picture from their website after this site exposed them. The PAA website does not contain the hate picture on June 26, 2005.
Pakistan American Alliance is a supporter of the AID sponsored "peace" march to Pakistan led by Sandeep Pandey. Sandeep Pandey, whom AID funds, is a supporter of revolutionary Marxism and does not consider Kashmir to be a part of India.
In this document prominent AID leader Balaji Sampath identifies himself as a communist and also explains the communist ideology of TNSF, an organization funded by AID.
Balaji Sampath writes (see page 37) :
| The ideas of power, politics,
hegemony, social consciousness, how people think, struggle, marxist analysis techniques, etc that I have learnt are now a part of me. |
He goes on to explain TNSF's ideology, an ideology which assumes that powerful dark "imperialistic" forces which include the government, press and policy makers are involved in a conspiracy to brainwash and enslave people, and that the current system of government should be overthrown (see pages 14 and 15).
| I
am
writing below some of the main points of the TNSF ideology (at
least for aspects I am involved with) as I see it: ..... These imperialist forces in alliance with the rich and the elite classes within the country, the government and policy makers and the press, are trying to brainwash people into believing that policies of liberalisation are good for the 'people'. ..... a change will come only when the poor and oppressed recognise this exploitative nature of society, unite against it, organise themselves, struggle and overthrow the exploitative systems. |
Reproduced in full
|
What is the "All India Science Movement"? There is nothing called the 'All India Science Movement' There are a number of different peoples science organisations all over India. These organisations are rather diverse, with ideologies ranging from variants of Gandhism, to radical left. The most well known of these is undoubtedly the Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP), which is a massive organisation. Most of its humanpower is composed of school teachers, and it has informal affiliation with the Communist Party of India [Marxist]. Another active group is called Bharatiye Gyan Vigyan Jatha (Indian Science and Knowledge movement). In the late eighties(especially) the Peoples Science organisations in India tried to come together and form various networks. One of them is the All India Peoples Science Network. Dinesh Abrol, who is mentioned by Ulhas's post, is a prominent member of the Delhi Science Forum, which is another well known 'peoples science organisation' and also affiliated (informally) with the CPM. The science movement is interesting, and largely influenced by the left (Though I believe exceptions exist, like the PPST -- Peoples Progressive Science and Technology -- which started with the line of revival of native Indian science, and some say is today close to the Hindu right) However it is not, in general, a peoples movement, though it has led peoples movements in the past. In particular today it is playing a leading role in the anti-nuke movement, after India exploded her nuclear bombs. Its activities are in the field of science education, environmental movements, popular science education (anti-obscurantism and anti-fundamentalism), use of appropriate technology to improve peoples lives, raising issues related to science policy and economic policy etc. Ashok Many thanks for this extremely valuable information. As industrial devastation works through community after community in Europe, leaving skilled workers of many kinds either redundant or in menial jobs, there is a growing need for a complete rethink along the lines of sustainable jobs for sustainable development. This only has prospects of moving forward through some kind of co-operative network, as free as possible of the market and capitalism. The natural extension of that is establishing links with like movements elsewhere to extend practical co-operation, collaboration and free exchange of ideas, produce and services. You seem to know these movements well. Undoubtedly some of the scientists involved will be on e-mail. Perhaps you know some. If so, please forward this mail to them so that contact can be made. Once again, thanks Ashok Walter Keen |
Quoting from an article in a "progressive" Canadian organization "Alternatives" website:
| My tour started from Chennai, the capital city of the province of Tamil Nadu. There I met Mr. M.A. Devdas, office coordinator of the Tamil Nadu Science Forum (TNSF) and then with the Director of an NGO called AID India (Action for India’s Development). The groups associated with the CPM and the All India Peoples Science Movement have reached a strategic alliance with AID by implementing relief measures and taking up mid and long term rehabilitation work. While the material purchase and construction is done by AID, the human power is provided by over a thousand volunteers of the AIPSN, SFI (Students Federation of India), DYFI (Democratic Youth Federation of India), AIDWA (All India Democratic Women’s Association) and TNSF itself. |
Some interesting facts:
Alternatives describes itself in this page
| Founded in
1994,
Alternatives, Action and Communication Network for International
Development, is a non-governmental, international solidarity
organization. ... We are present in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East, as well as Central, South and Southeast Asia. In each of these regions, we work in direct partnership with groups of women and men who are struggling for progress, respect and justice, as well as the peace and sustainable development of their community, their environment, and their region. ....Alternatives’ and its partners’ international solidarity projects are centred on : • The environment and sustainable development • Democracy |
A whois of cpiml.org yields interesting results. As of August 06, 2005 the whois of cpiml.org reveals
Domain ID:D2282999-LROR |
We are depressed that Canadian goverment's dollars are being spent to support an organization that has made its disdain for democracy clear.
After this site exposed the fact that "Alternatives" a radical leftist organization funded by the Canadian government had registered CPI(ML)'s website, data in the whois database has changed. Earlier records showed Alternatives as the registrant with their address in Quebec. Surprisingly, the address of Alternatives has changed to one in Shakarpur, India. Has "Alternatives" outsourced its operations to India? We would be interested in knowing. Lets hope Alternatives is not trying fool people into believing that it is now an Indian organization.
Note that "Alternatives" is still the registrant. and Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya still the admin.
We are amused note the similarity in the pattern between "Alternatives" current phone number and that of Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya.
Registrant Phone:+1.911122521067Their address also coincides with that of Com. Dipanker Bhattacharya.
Admin Phone:+1.191112252106
"Alternatives", it appears, has started sharing their fax with Comarade Dipankar Bhattacharya.
Registrant FAX:+1.911122518248
Admin FAX:+1.911122518248
We thought we would end this note with a quote from Karl Marx's communist manifesto for both Comrade Bhattacharya who heads CPI(ML) and "Alternatives":
| The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. |
but then we recalled that Marx himself made money from the stock markets. Lack of ethics is unfortunately a deeply rooted and ancient Communist tradition.
So, instead, we leave with this quotation of Sir Walter Scott
|
Whois query on 9 Aug 2005, 10:04 PST reveals this :
Domain ID:D2282999-LROR |
Kaleem Kawaja, an Islamist infamous for his open support to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan is organizing an event along with AID. Excerpts from his article written at the fall of the Taliban regime.
| Washington DC: With the defeat and disbanding of
the Taliban government in Afghanistan in its recent face-off with the
mighty US army, another bold attempt of Muslims to assert themselves
and the Islamic values in their own country has come to an ignominious
end. Unfortunately, unlike the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979-80,
the Taliban had neither thought through their plan, nor they had
developed a realistic strategy of how to implement their plan, even
though the terrible chaos and circumstances in Afghanistan had provided
them a golden opportunity. Indeed, during their short stay in power,
with very few resources and very little help, Taliban carried out major
societal reforms in Afghanistan. Reforms that the mighty British and
Russian empires failed in bringing about, were successfully carried out
by the rag-tag semi-literate Taliban. .......... Today, an overwhelming majority of Muslims all over the globe feel deep sadness at the tragedy, that befell the attempts of the Muslims of Afghanistan to reform and make their country strong by using the egalitarian Islamic practices. They feel sad at the ignominious failure of the Taliban movement that had showed so much promise for the whole world, but which inflicted so many fatal wounds on itself |
The email announcing the AID event (portions of email addresses have been blanked out to prevent spamming, all emphasis ours)
| ---------
Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 19:17:53 -0400 From: Sandeep Gupta <xxx@xxx.xxx> To: SCIMaryland@xxx.xxx Subject: [~SCI] "A GET TOGETHER FOR PEACE" on Saturday , Aug. 13 at 2.00 PM The Association For India's Development in collaboration with several like minded folks is particularly delighted to invite Indians, Pakistanis, and friends to "A GET TOGETHER FOR PEACE" CELEBRATION OF OUR INDEPENDENCE DAYS!! Date: Saturday, August 13, 2005 Time: 2:00 PM Place: Juan Ramon Jimenez Room, Stamp Union Bldg. University of Maryland, College Park, MD The Peace March from New Delhi to Multan last spring undoubtedly established that people on both sides of the border are eager to strengthen cultural, commercial, educational, and familial relationships with each other. It is high time that we soften the political lines separating the two neighbors. Our focus is to urge both the governments to ease restrictions on cross border travel at the earliest possible date. We seek the support of every Indian and Pakistani for this petition. When people lead, the leaders are duty bound to follow. Program Highlights -------------------------- - Short video of the PEACE MARCH - Talk by Professor A. H. Nayyar - Peace Activist\Professor Emeritus, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan - "LAKEER", A Story by Shri Umesh Agnihotri, Broadcast Artist - Poems, songs, skits Participating associations ----------------------------------- Association for India's Development (AID) Dr. Mohan Bhagat &Dr. Priya Ranjan American Federation of Muslims from India (AFMI) Dr. Zafar Iqbal Asha for Education, Washington Dr. Sirish Agarwal Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA) Mr. Kaleem Kawaja Association of Indian Muslims of America (AIM) Mr. Kaleem Kawaja Aligarh Alumni Association of Washington Mrs. Shakila Raza DC Collective Dr. Ashwini Tambe Hyderabad Association of Metropolitan Washington Mrs. Sultana Kamal Non Resident Indians for Secular & Harmonious India Mr. Shrikumar Poddar Pakistan Association of Greater Washington Mr. Parvez Uppal Policy Institute for Religion and State (PIFRAS) Dr. John Prabhudoss Sadbhav Mission and Young India Mr. Rohit Tripathi The Organization for Universal Communal Harmony Mr. Gajanan Deshmukh For more information: Mohan Bhagat - 301-345-5308; Priya Ranjan - 1-888-TALK-2-AID (E-mail: priya@aidindia.xxx) Directions: ------------- From Beltway, take Exit 25 to Rt.1 South towards College Park. After 2.5 miles, make Right on Campus Drive to enter Univ. of MD campus. Go past the Big M circle. pass the bus-stop, and Stamp Student Union is the building on your right. You may park in Lots AA, AA2 or Lot 1 on Campus Drive that are usually free after 4.00 PM but please read the parking signs as the instructions may change. A detailed map of the Stamp Student Union can be found at http://www.union.umd.edu/building/maps.html . The Jimenez room is on the Second Floor in Stamp Student Union. |
Com. Sitaram Yechury, member, CPI(M) politburo, explains the relationship between All India People's Science Network (AIPSN) and CPI(M)
| While the expenditure on
education was decreasing,
the literacy mission was promoted by the ruling classes as a cheaper
alternative. Such an activity was envisaged to be conducted through
non-governmental organisations and
many of our science movement organisations
participated in this programme. This gave a further boost to the growth
of the
All India People’s Science Network. Simultaneously,
opportunities also emerged
for the Party to intervene in many other spheres as well.
|
We would like thank an AID volunteer (who would like to remain nameless) for this interesting document. This document reveals what kind of "development" activities AID funds. All emphasis ours. [????] indicates we couldn't figure out how the numbers add up or what the previous phrase means. Utthan has been funded by AID. The project involves lots of expensive meetings, fairs, campaigns, and exorbitant salaries for the higher ups of the NGO's (Rs. 1,08,000 for a few days of work).
|