TAMING THE SHADOWY WORLD OF NGOs

THE conscience industry is one of the pillars of India's crumbling Left liberal edifice.

- PRABHU CHAWLA

There is nothing like a good cry to get the tears and dollars flowing for poverty propagandists. The elite NGOs who haunted the corridors of power-wooing munificent ministers and beneficial babus with the best vol-au-vent and five-star grub for unsuspecting whites with deep pockets and a cultural guilt about being rich while Acche Din is on the agenda are quivering under their muslin dohars in Lutyens' Delhi mansions after the Modi government emptied their wallets and froze their bank accounts.

The neo right wingers call them Nasty Greedy Operators (NGOs) who claim to promote the mirage of championing a clean environment, demolishing both economic and gender inequalities, empowering marginalised masses and converting the sick into healthy go-getters. However, close scrutiny and audit done by various agencies in India and overseas reveal that most heavy-hitter NGOs are a cabal of malicious mercenaries who collect moolah to sustain their luxe lifestyles, while the legerdemain of hypocrisy launders their generous reputation.

Last week, the Union home ministry cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licences of five NGOs: CNI Synodical Board of Social Services, Voluntary Health Association of India, Indo-Global Social Service Society, Church's Auxiliary for Social Action, and Evangelical Fellowship of India. The charges were indulging in religious conversion and misuse of foreign funds. A couple of them had been raided by agencies last year and their accounts were audited. They have been getting big money from the US, Germany, Sweden and other European countries, foundations and trusts with controversial pasts.