Tawang Clash: Why Amit Shah has charged Rajiv Gandhi Foundation with receiving funds from China

Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday has levelled fresh allegations against the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

Shah, addressing reporters outside Parliament House, made his remarks in the backdrop of the Opposition demanding a discussion on clashes between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh.

Let’s take a closer look at the foundation and the allegations against it:

The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation is a non-government organisation associated with the Gandhi family.

As per its website, the RGF was set up in 1991.

It worked on a number of critical issues including health, science and technology, women and children, disability support, etc., from 1991 till 2009.

“In 2010, the Foundation decided to focus on education going forward," the RGF website states.

The RGF website lists the following initiatives:

• INTERACT, providing educational support to children impacted by conflict
• Rajiv Gandhi Access to Opportunities programme, enhancing mobility of physically challenged youth
• Rajiv Gandhi Cambridge Scholarship programme, providing financial assistance to bright Indian students to study at Cambridge
• Natural Resource Management, supporting Gram Gaurav
• Wonderoom, an innovative children’s library

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi is the chairperson of RGF while other trustees include former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former finance minister P Chidambaram, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The RGF functions from Jawahar Bhawan, located on Rajendra Prasad Road, near the Parliament complex, in New Delhi – the same building as the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT).

The RGCT was established in 2002 to address the development needs of the underprivileged people of the country, especially the rural poor.

The FCRA registration of the RGF and Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) were cancelled in October last after an investigation carried out by an inter-ministerial committee formed by the home ministry in 2020.

According to the RGF’s annual report of 2005-06, which is available on its website, the embassy of the People’s Republic of China is listed as one of its donors under “partner organisations and donors”.

What are the allegations against it?

Shah on Tuesday claimed the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) registration of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) was cancelled after it allegedly received Rs 1.35 crore from the Chinese Embassy.

According to law, any NGO which intends to receive foreign funding must register itself under the FCRA.

Shah said Lok Sabha proceedings were disrupted by the Congress citing clashes on the border but the actual reason was that it did not want to hear facts about the RGF as a question was listed about it during the Question Hour in the House.

“Between 2005 and 2007, the RGF had received Rs 1.35 crore from the Chinese embassy. After following due diligence, the home ministry cancelled the FCRA registration of the RGF,” he said.

Shah alleged that while the Congress claimed that the money from the embassy was meant to undertake research on ties between India and China, and the country wanted to know if the research covered the issue of land that India lost during the 1962 war.

On 7 December, Minister of state for Home affairs Nityanand Rai told Rajya Sabha that the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) license of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) was cancelled under Section 14 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.

“The FCRA license of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) was cancelled under Section 14 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA, 2010) due to violation of provisions under section 11 and conditions of registration under section 12(4)(a)(vi) of the FCRA, 201,” told MoS Nityanand Rai to Rajya Sabha.

Rai said that the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) license was cancelled under Section 14 of the FCRA.

“The FCRA license of the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) was cancelled under section 14 of the FCRA, 2010 due to violation of provisions under sections 8(1)(a), 11, 17, 18, 19 and conditions of registration under section 12(4)(a)(vi) of the FCRA, 2010,” said MoS Nityanand Rai.

Rai also said that the association whose FCRA registration has been cancelled in terms of provisions under section 14 of the FCRA, 2010 shall not be eligible for registration or grant of prior permission for a period of three years from the date of cancellation of registration.

“In terms of provisions under section 14(3) of the FCRA, 2010, the association whose FCRA registration has been cancelled in terms of provisions under section 14 of the FCRA, 2010 shall not be eligible for registration or grant of prior permission for a period of three years from the date of cancellation of registration,” said MoS Nityanand Rai.

In October, officials told PTI the Centre cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act licence of the RGF over alleged violations of the law.

“Yes, the FCRA licence of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation has been cancelled after an investigation against it,” an official told PTI.

The investigators covered alleged manipulation of documents while filing income-tax returns, misuse of funds and money laundering while receiving funds from foreign countries, including China.

The NGOs came under the scanner in July 2020 after the MHA set up an inter-ministerial committee headed by an Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer to probe possible violations of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Income Tax Act and the FCRA.

Another organisation that came under the probe was Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust.

However, no action has so far been taken against the third organisation.

The probe team comprised officers from the ministries of home and finance, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), besides the ED, and was mandated to investigate if these trusts run by the Gandhi family and other Congress leaders allegedly manipulated any documents while filing income tax returns or misused and laundered money received from foreign countries.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra in October said that the home ministry’s decision to cancel the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act licences of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) and the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) for alleged violation of laws has “exposed” their corruption.

This isn’t the first time the BJP has taken aim at the RGF.

In 2020, during the Indian Army’s face-off with China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Ladakh, Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) president JP Nadda had alleged that China gave funds to the RGF between 2005 and 2009 to carry out studies that were not in national interest.

“Under the garb of China and COVID-19 crisis, one should not shy away from questions the nation wants to know,” Nadda told reporters.

Nadda alleged that the RGF, which is headed by Sonia Gandhi, continuously received donations from the Chinese embassy between 2005-09, from the “tax haven” of Luxemburg between 2006-09 and NGOs with commercial interests.

National interest was “sacrificed” and donations into the family-run foundation were accepted, Nadda claimed.

Nadda further alleged that money from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund was diverted to the RGF, which also received funds from fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi.

The BJP had also raised a question that whether the funds received by the RGF were a “bribe” for lobbying for a free-trade agreement (FTA) between India and China.

Nadda asked the Congress to come clean on its “links” with China, and the details of its MoU with the Communist Party of China.

He said India’s trade deficit with China soared to $36.2 billion in 2013-14 from $1.1 billion in 2004 and asked if it was “quid pro quo” from the Congress. The Congress-led UPA was in power between 2004-14.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted:

Among the donors list of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation annual report in 2005-06 clearly shows that it has received a donation from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China.
We want to know why this donation was taken ? pic.twitter.com/Xe3ynHnjAx

— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) June 25, 2020

Patra, demanding a response from then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, said she is “no queen” and should explain the charge. He also alleged that Gandhi has written the script of corruption in the country.

The Congress has become synonymous to corruption and conspiracy, he told reporters, and alleged that the Gandhi family floated “shell companies” like the RGF to become “rich”.

Patra further said the PMNRF donated money to RGF thrice when the UPA was in power.

Sonia as Congress president was on the board of the PMNRF and also headed the RGF, Patra said.

The audit company for the PMNRF was headed by a former Congress MP and Union minister, Patra added.

The Congress had responded by dismissing Nadda’s attack on the RGF over alleged donations to it from the Chinese embassy and the Prime Minister National Relief Fund as a “diabolical game of deception” by the ruling party to divert attention from the alleged Chinese occupation of Indian territory.

Surjewala said, “The diabolical game of deception, diversion and disinformation is being played out by the BJP and J P Nadda to divert the attention of the country from the Chinese occupation of Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso and now Depsang up to the Y-junction, 18 kms inside the LAC.”

“This is the greatest disservice that the BJP and PM Narendra Modi are doing to the country. Instead of fighting China and defending our country, they are fighting the Congress party and undermining India’s territorial integrity,” Surjewala alleged.

With inputs from agencies

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