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Congress disrupted Parliament to skirt issue on Rajiv Gandhi Foundation: Shah
Shah’s comment came after the opposition demanded a discussion in Parliament over the December 9 face-off between Indian and Chinese armed forces in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang.
The Congress disrupted Parliament not because it was upset that it couldn’t discuss the Chinese effort to transgress the line of actual control in Arunachal Pradesh, but because it did not want a question on the cancellation of the FCRA licence of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation to be answered in the House, union home minister Amit Shah said.
When the Congress party was in power, it allowed China to get away with transgressions including land grab, he added, alleging that the opposition party also accepted money from the Chinese embassy for the foundation.
Shah’s comment came after the opposition demanded a discussion in Parliament over the December 9 face-off between Indian and Chinese armed forces in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang. He said the “opposition had no plausible justification” to disrupt question hour because the parliamentary affairs minister “had already clarified that the minister of defence Rajnath Singh” would speak on the same in Parliament at 12 noon. He added that he was surprised but that when he “saw the 5th question in the schedule” for question hour, he “understood the cause of their worry. The 5th question was related to the cancellation of the FCRA registration of the RGF.”
Congress MPs Benny Behanan and VK Sreekandan had sought to know whether the union government has cancelled the licences of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010; the details of irregularities allegedly found during the probe; and whether it was true that there are allegations that old charges have been “recycled at Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust”.
The Union Home Ministry cancelled the licence of RGF in October as first reported by HT.
Addessing the media, Shah alleged that the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, headed by Sonia Gandhi, received ₹1.35 crore from the Chinese embassy in 2005-06 and 2006-07 , which violated FCRA rules. The foundation’s licence was subsequently cancelled “since the transaction was not in conformity with FCRA laws”. He added that “all legal formalities” were followed and a “notice issued” before the cancellation.
Reacting to Shah’s allegations, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said: “There is no relation to it (Rajiv Gandhi Foundation FCRA licence cancellation issue). If it’s our fault, then hang us.” The foundation is a Congress-run organisation that was set up in 1991 and was mandated to carry out research, particularly in the field of education.
The foundation is a Congress-run organisation that was set up in 1991 and was mandated to carry out research, particularly in the field of education.
Accusing the Congress of allowing the Chinese to grab Indian territory after the 1962 India-China war, Shah said if the foundation was tasked to undertake research on India-China relations, as claimed by the Congress, whether it had looked into the “issue of encroachment of thousands of hectares of land by China in 1962” or “India’s prospect of getting a permanent membership in the Security Council” being “sacrificed on account of former PM Nehru.”
The home minister demanded to know whether the foundation had documented China’s strong-arm tactics when in 2010 it began to give visa on paper instead of stamping them to the passports of residents of Jammu and Kashmir, objecting to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh and denying visa to the then chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Dorjee Khandu.
“If research is conducted on this subject, then what is the outcome of it?” Shah asked.
Shah also said the foundation received ₹50 lakh from televangelist Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation, which was banned by the government for its alleged involvement in terrorism.
He said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government gave in to pressure from China and stopped road and infrastructure construction in Demchock.
“The BJP government will not allow incursion on an inch of land,” the home minister said. “The bravery shown by (Indian) soldiers is appreciable; they have saved our land.”
This is not the first time that the BJP has accused the foundation of violating rules. Earlier too, the party had questioned the Congress leadership for accepting money for the foundation from the Chinese embassy and alleged that the Gandhis had dinner with diplomats in the backdrop of the face-off in Galwan valley in eastern Ladakh.
