New Delhi: Time has been when accepting donations from Chinese institutions has been as proper & acceptable as spreading space on a swing.
Yet, the BJP, in its haste to divert attention from that Galwan blunder, has forgotten the adage that when you point a finger in someone, you’re pointing 3 in yourself. In this complaint, at the least 2 fingers are pointing in the BJP ecosystem.
Observer Study Foundation
The Observer Study Foundation, a foreign policy think tank associated with foreign minister S. Jaishankar’s son, got funding from that Chinese consulate, involving that in Calcutta, in 2016. The ORF is supported by Reliance Industries.
The other think tank, the Vivekananda Intl. Foundation has announced on its site that it’s functioning relationships with 9 Chinese institutions on matters of foreign & strategic policy.
Domestic security adviser Ajit Doval is the founding director of the Vivekananda Intl. Foundation (VIF), that shares close ties with BJP chiefs & the RSS.
The think gratitude themselves put up this info within the people domain long back.
The identity of the donors wouldn’t have drawn attention hadn’t the BJP made a non-issue into a domestic security problem by accusing the Congress of Chinese links on the basis of amount got in 2005-06. It’s common for organizations world-wide to receive foreign funding.
Dhruva Jaishankar, son of the foreign minister, had become director of the US Initiative in the Observer Study Foundation (ORF) previous year. The foreign minister, also a previous ambassador to China, is a normal visitor to the ORF where he delivers talks on different foreign policy-related topics.
The ORF site carries a list of foreign donors & the amounts got from them.
It shows the think tank got 3 grants, together value over INR 1.25 cr, from that Chinese consulate-general in 2016 & the other INR 50 lakh the following yr..
The foundation got INR 7.Seven lakh on Apr 29, 2016; the other INR 11.55 lakh on Nov four that yr. — both from that Chinese consulate-general in Calcutta — & INR 1.068 cr from that “Consulate Gen. of Citizens’s Republic of China” on Dec 31 that yr..
A grant of INR 50 lakh had come from that “Consulate Gen. of Citizens Republic of China” on Dec 1, 2017.
Vivekananda Intl. Foundation
The Vivekananda Intl. Foundation’s site lists its association with the China Institute of Intl. Strategic Studies (Beijing); China Institute of Intl. Studies (Beijing); Center for South Asian Studies, Peking University (Beijing); Study Institute for Indian Ocean Economies, Yunnan University of Finance & Economics, Kunming; Domestic Institute of Intl. Strategy of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing; Center for South Asia & West China Cooperation & Development (devt) University, Chengdu; Institute of South Asian Studies, Sichuan University, Chengdu; Silk Road Think Tank Network Development (devt) Study Council, Beijing; & the Center for Indian Studies, Shenzhen.
Sources within the security establishment stated members of the 2 think tanks had ample accessibility to North Stop & South Stop, the seats of governance.
An email sent by this news paper to the ORF on Sat. night elicited the reply: “Your sms was got & we’ll return to you in the earliest.”
This news paper also sent a sms to ORF president Samir Saran on his own Twitter account(a/c) & has been waiting a reply at the moment of going to press.
Although, this record hasn’t made any suggestion that any of the donations aren’t legal.