Dr Pandey, Gandhi-giri and Terrorism…

Like many of you, I have heard of ASHA�and its founder, Dr Sandeep Pandey�- always in a very admirable and inspiring terms.

So I was more than a little surprised (and quite disturbed) when I came across this article�which talks about how Dr Pandey has been openly associating with organisations supporting terrosism, armed violence against the state (Naxalites) and also Islamic terrorist organisations.

Then, when I did a bit of research the whole thing began to get curiouser and curiouser… see for example this�and this – MUST READ.

Elsewhere on blogosphere, I have come across the argument that the allegations are anonymous and hence do not deserve a response…My position is regardless of whether the accusations are levelled by an anonynous or a known person, the comments and dates make it very easy to establish the veracity of the events and incidents.

If the reports and remarks are misleading or erroneous, they should be explained or refuted…silence does not help.

In an effort to get to the bottom of these stories, I emailed ASHA asking for their views on the reports.

Image Copyright: Eros International and Vidhu Vinod Chopra Productions

In response, I got the following email (emphasis mine):

Thank you for your email and query. We are aware of all the links you mention below, and all of them have received responses at different times in the past.� Beyond these, please contact me should you have specific concerns about our projects.

While Sandeep Pandey co-founded Asha for Education many years ago, he does not hold any official position within Asha Trust in India, or in the US, nor is he involved in any day to day functioning of the organization.� This has been the case for some years now.

Additionally, to correct another misunderstanding, AID is not a sister organization of Asha, but a completely different organization with their own mission, vision and objectives. Like we collaborate with other non-profits in the Bay area on events and projects, we do collaborate with AID intermittently.

Thank you for your email and do let us know if you have any specific concerns.

I�followed up by asking Mr Raghavan (Director of ASHA who had replied to my email) if he could email me the responses (or send me the links to them) and also asked him specifically if Dr Pandey is either officially or unofficially involved in direct fund-raising for Asha. I�have not yet received a�response to that (it has been more than 8 days).

In the meantime, below�are some excerpts from the open letter.

Also, please have a look at this which suggests that the funds are probably not being wisely used.

In addition, see the comments to this post�, also this column�and this link which suggests that ASHA may not entirely be apolitical.

Lastly,�some info on�AID.

Excerpts from the Open Letter (the original is meticulously referenced):

“…I am not a rich person by any standards. But like most Indians, I was (and still am) concerned about the plight of the millions in India further down on the economic scale…Like many of my colleagues and friends, I decided to…(donate)�a part of my earnings to local charity organizations including AID and ASHA…Although I no longer contribute to these organizations, I am distressed to hear reports that AID has been diverting funds for other purposes, including funding fundamentalist and political groups in India. [i][1]�There is more to be said about these groups and their activities, but that is not the focus of this article.

Dr. Sandeep Pandey probably needs no introduction. The founder of the US-based ASHA for Education (ASHA), Dr. Pandey moved back to India in the 90s to take up social work full-time….

Dr. Sandeep Pandey, to whom my questions are addressed, is considered by many to be a true Gandhian devoted to the Mahatma’s ideals of peaceful co-existence and non-violent struggle.

In the past few years, I have been disturbed by reports of Dr. Pandey’s association with terrorist groups and shady organizations. I have been disturbed to note that ASHA and AID have been sharing the stage with obscurantist Muslim organizations in the US and fundamentalist left-wing groups in India.

I am distressed to hear reports that these organizations have been diverting funds. Much of this has been under the guise of promoting “secularism,” although strangely, ASHA and AID rarely work with Hindu organizations in India, even though Hindus form more than 80 percent of Indian population.

As a past donor to ASHA and AID, two organizations that Dr. Pandey works with, I would like to take this opportunity to ask him some questions.

1.������ Dr. Pandey, who is sponsoring your present tour of the USA? How much expenditure does it incur? Don’t you think that the money spent on this tour could have been better used to help poor people in India instead?

2.������ Dr. Pandey, you participated in a meeting honoring Naxalites who have murdered law enforcement officers and civilians. [ii][2] CPI-ML, which organized the meet, has also announced in its publication that you attended the meet and called for revolutionary fronts like CPI-ML to unite. [iii] [3] You claim to be a Gandhian. Could you please explain how a Gandhian could support Naxalite terrorist organizations?

3.������ Dr. Pandey, CPI-ML, whose conference you attended, calls for armed revolution and for raising an army. [iv][4] Is it not hypocrisy to claim that you are a Gandhian but still attend CPI-ML conferences that call for armed revolution? [v] [5] How does the violent and fundamentalist ideology of groups like CPI-ML fit into your self-professed Gandhian ideals? Do you wear one mask in front of American donors and volunteers and another in front of violent CPI-ML activists?

4.������ Dr. Pandey, many ASHA donors and volunteers live in America and some are even US citizens. You have called America “the biggest evil power on earth” [vi][6] and “the biggest terrorist state.” [vii] [7] If so, why do you and ASHA, which you founded, raise funds from the USA?

5.������ Dr. Pandey, while you have no qualms about calling a democratic state like America terrorist, you have never used such words for real terrorists like the Al Qaeda and Taliban. In fact, you turned into an apologist for Al Qaeda in an interview you gave to a Muslim newspaper in the aftermath of the 9/11 massacre. Even though it had been proven that it was Al Qaeda terrorists who carried out the attacks you claimed that nobody knew who perpetrated the crime. [viii][8] Could you please explain why you chose to whitewash a terrorist crime but didn’t take side with American victims?

6.������ Dr. Pandey, in the same interview, you also expressed support for Kashmiri separatism. But you have never expressed your support for and sympathies with Kashmiri Pandits, who are victims of Islamic terrorism. The entire Kashmiri Pandit community of more than 700,000 was ethnically cleansed from Kashmir and nearly 400,000 of them languish in refugee camps. Why did you not ever support the victims but instead supported the oppressors?

7.������ Dr. Pandey, the newspaper mentioned above has sympathized with the Taliban. [ix] [9] Do you agree with their Taliban sympathies? If not, why would a person like you, who calls himself a Gandhian, disseminate his views through such media channels, implicitly giving them credibility?

8.������ Dr. Pandey, recently you wrote an opinion editorial for Al Jazeerah, where you demanded the release of an alleged Muslim criminal charged with abducting a woman. [x][10] Would you please explain why you opted to associate with a media outlet that has openly expressed anti-Semitic hatred and has been credibly accused of being connected to terrorist groups including Al Qaeda? Al Jazeerah has no circulation in India. Yet you chose it among several possible venues to publish your opinion on an issue concerning an alleged petty criminal from India. And perhaps even more surprisingly, Al Jazeerah published your piece. Which audience were you appealing to? What is your connection with Al Jazeerah?

9.������ Dr. Pandey, you have participated in several conferences and meetings organized by ASHA and AID in support of Muslim victims of the Gujarat riots. AID and ASHA have never organized any meeting, seminar, conference, or campaign in support of Hindu victims anywhere, but several other groups have organized such events in solidarity with victims of Islamic terrorism in Kashmir. Why have you never participated in or even expressed your support for such events? Do you think Hindu victims do not deserve sympathy? Would you urge ASHA and AID to make amends and sponsor events to express support for the Hindu victims of Islamic terrorism in Kashmir and Bangladesh?

10.�� Dr. Pandey, as mentioned above, ASHA and AID have never sponsored an event in support of Hindu victims of terrorism and ethnic cleansing. But they have sponsored extremely sectarian events in association with groups such as the Indian Muslim Council USA (IMC-USA). [xi][11] One of the key speakers in one such convention was Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi who founded the banned Islamic terrorist organization, Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). [xii] [12] Would you be willing to publicly state that ASHA and AID should not associate with such organizations?

11.�� Dr. Pandey, would you be willing to ask ASHA and AID to co-sponsor events with Hindu organizations like the Ramakrishna Mission, Sathya Sai Organization, and ISKCON Bangalore which do exceptional charitable work all over India and serves poor people everywhere without regard to religion, caste, or language?

12.�� Dr. Pandey, last but not the least, do you unequivocally and without reservation denounce Communist and Islamic terrorism? Will you publicly denounce Communist and Islamic terrorist organizations?

13.�� Dr. Pandey, during the tsunami fund raiser, AID channeled funds through the Democratic youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has been implicated for fomenting violence. [xiii][13] The AID website also reported this. However, when the news became public, and people started to express reservation over AID’s funding of communist outfits like DYFI, AID started removing the references to the diversion from its website. [xiv][14] Do you think what AID did was ethical? Would you publicly condemn AID for diverting charity funds to outfits that engage in violence?

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Have readers come across these accusations before? and has ASHA or Dr Pandey refuted these allegations or offered an explanation?