The Big Story | Are Some NGOs Working For Foreign Powers? | NDTV Profit
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00:00Good evening and welcome, you are watching the big story on NDTV profit and we have got
00:21an exclusive access to an FIR that has been filed by the CBI against the NGO Oxfam India.
00:29Now it is not just this one NGO, we have also accessed similar documents against other NGOs.
00:36Now this of course follows the Indian Express newspaper that had reported that the income
00:41tax department found that a network of NGOs including Oxfam India were using foreign funds
00:47and had collaborated with foreign entities to stall projects by the Adani group.
00:53NDTV profit followed the money to find out how each of these NGOs were connected and
00:59how foreign funds were being misused to target Indian corporate houses.
01:03Now to begin with, we are going to go across to Shrimi Chaudhary who is joining in with
01:08a detailed report on what the income tax department's findings have been.
01:14Yeah, so it all started with the income tax department search action against all these
01:21five NGOs in September 2022 over misutilization of foreign funds which they have received
01:28over five years.
01:29So during the course of investigation, the income tax department has found that these
01:34NGOs were influenced to run negative campaign and even execute negative campaign against
01:40Adani group and GSW group and trying to sort of stall their coal and thermal plants specifically.
01:46In fact, one of the NGOs Oxfam is in touch with its Australian arm to sort of stop mining
01:53of Adani group and in fact work towards delisting the Adani ports.
01:58So the interesting finding have been so far and in fact, they also suggesting that the
02:04president of one of the NGOs is also the shareholder on the another one which clearly indicated
02:09the concerted efforts by one person or a group of individual against these conglomerates.
02:16So what happened now is that investigation so far is concluded though we are trying to
02:21get some more detail on the investigation but the license under the FCRA regulation
02:27has been cancelled.
02:28The matter is in Delhi High Court and investigation is still on is what we are learned from our
02:36sources in the income tax department.
02:38All right, Shreemi, thank you very much for that.
02:40Now let's in fact go across to Sandhya Ravishankar who's also joining us this evening in the
02:45studio.
02:46Hi Sandhya.
02:47Sandhya, we are going to come to you basically to understand how these two foreign NGOs continue
02:53to route funds to smaller entities to follow certain agenda despite their FCRA license
03:00actually being cancelled.
03:02So explain to us how these NGOs managed to follow their agendas despite obviously censure.
03:10All right, Nupur to explain this I'm going to have to take you through an exclusive copy
03:14of the FIR filed by the CBI which is now looking into the cases in fact of a bunch
03:22of NGOs who have flouted FCRA norms.
03:25Now we are speaking specifically about Oxfam India.
03:28Now the FIR in fact raises a very crucial question and I quote, this exposed Oxfam India
03:36as a probable instrument of foreign policy of foreign organizations or entities which
03:43have funded Oxfam India liberally over the years.
03:46Now that is a very damning statement.
03:49Now let's take a quick look at the number of violations that have been committed by
03:53Oxfam India as per the CBI FIR which NDTV Profit has exclusively accessed.
03:59The number one is routing funds through other means despite FCRA registration having been
04:05cancelled.
04:06Now if you take a look at your screen you will be able to see the total income of Oxfam
04:12India over the years.
04:13It runs into crores.
04:15It's a mega mega NGO and 75% of its funding comes from abroad.
04:20Now the FIR also states that Oxfam India and its employees appear to be supporting agitational
04:26activities and this you know ties in really well with what Shrimi said just before about
04:32how these NGOs are funding smaller NGOs who are in turn funding protests against groups
04:38like the Adanis and GSW Steel.
04:41Now this is called sub-granting and Oxfam was sub-granting funds to a number of smaller
04:47NGOs so that they could carry out the dirty work of organizing protests.
04:52Now this is of course illegal under the FCRA Act.
04:56You cannot sub-grant funds to other NGOs.
04:59Now I'm also going to show you an excerpt of an email or rather an agreement between
05:07Oxfam and another NGO called Environics Trust.
05:11In this you will see that Oxfam India had funded this trust to mobilize communities
05:17with the help of local unions against the coal industries and this is one of the NGOs
05:25that have been found to be fomenting protests against the Adani group.
05:30Now Nupur you asked about how exactly this actually happened.
05:36The second point in the CBIFR details how they create a new structure to continue funding
05:44NGOs while bypassing FCRA laws.
05:47So a sort of arm's length approach was created to bypass these FCRA laws and you're looking
05:54at that on your screen.
05:56So once Oxfam India lost FCRA approval it had no access to foreign funds.
06:02It handpicked NGOs and told its foreign funders that they could then fund these NGOs and these
06:10NGOs in turn would be very pliant, ready to receive funding and they would go out and
06:17do the dirty work that Oxfam actually wanted to do.
06:20And when we talk of dirty work Sandhya, there's another person who often finds a mention in
06:26this and I'm going to read out a statement of his.
06:31This is George Soros, he's the well-known hedge fund investor and he made a statement
06:36in the run-up to the election saying Modi and business tycoon and we're going to play
06:40out that quote for our viewers right now.
06:44So this is what he said and I quote him.
06:46He said, Modi and business tycoon Adani are close allies, their fate is intertwined.
06:52Adani Enterprises tried to raise funds in the stock market but failed.
06:56Adani is accused of stock manipulation and his stock collapsed like a house of cards.
07:00Modi is silent on the subject but he will have to answer questions from foreign investors
07:05and in Parliament.
07:06This has significantly weakened Modi's strangled hold on India's federal government and opened
07:12the door to push much needed institutional reforms.
07:15I may be naive but I expect a democratic revival in India.
07:20Sandhya, I want to come to you on this one as well.
07:24Tell us who this man is, what has his past been like and what is his link to these NGOs?
07:31Well, he used the words democratic revival but in effect I think he meant regime change
07:37because he's known the world over as a regime change agent.
07:40So he's a Hungarian-born businessman, he lives in New York, a billionaire hedge fund investor.
07:47He is also the founder of a charity called Open Society Foundations and the link between
07:53George Soros and Oxfam India, we were talking about Oxfam a little while ago and now we're
07:58talking about George Soros, the link is Open Society Foundations.
08:02Now George Soros through Open Society Foundations pumps in huge amounts of money into NGOs across
08:10the world like Oxfam.
08:13I'll give you a little bit of a tidbit about George Soros.
08:17In 1992, he was known as the man who broke the Bank of England because he shorted the
08:23British Pound and literally collapsed the Bank of England.
08:28He did the same in 1997 with the Thai BART, he shorted the BART and he triggered the Asian
08:34financial crisis.
08:35So quite a character there.
08:37Oh yes, absolutely and he is someone who has been funding these NGOs.
08:41Now, you know, this entire exposé actually brings about three big questions and three
08:46big questions that we're asking this evening.
08:49Question number one, are some NGOs in India working as agents on behalf of foreign powers?
08:54The second big question is, how did these NGOs actually operate?
09:05And that brings us to the third one.
09:08Who are these entities who are working behind the scenes to destabilize India and essentially
09:14puncture its growth story?
09:16Well, to answer these questions, we are now joined by Sanjay Asher.
09:23He's the senior partner at Crawford Bailey and also joining us is Ashutosh Srivastava
09:29and he's an advocate in the Supreme Court.
09:31Good evening, gentlemen.
09:32Thank you very much for joining us.
09:35First to you, Ashutosh, the investigation, you know, has essentially highlighted that
09:40over 75% of the funding for four of these five NGOs actually came from foreign sources
09:46over a five-year period.
09:48Now do you think that this reliance on international donations obviously raises certain questions
09:54about the motivations and the influences on these NGOs?
09:59Yes.
10:00See, first of all, you know, any NGO who is getting any funds from foreign countries,
10:06they have to be registered under FCRA.
10:09We know it very well.
10:10And further, there has been an amendment in this Act from time to time.
10:14See, this Act was originally in 1976, it got certain amendments in 2010 and also in 2020.
10:21Now after this amendment, you know, under Section 7, the NGO, if they get any foreign
10:27funds, they cannot further sub-transfer it to other NGOs for any purpose or any, you
10:32know, for whatever purposes, even to a person or any other NGO or any entity.
10:38But here, you know, if we see the complaint which was filed by the Director of the Home
10:43Ministry based on the recommendations and the findings of the CBDT, that is Central
10:51Board of Direct Taxes, that there has been irregular activities being conducted by this
10:57particular NGO.
10:59And accordingly, this complaint was filed in April last year and the FIR was also registered
11:07by the CBI.
11:09And after conducting the investigation, CBI also found that there have been clear violation
11:16of Sections 8, 17, 12, 4 of the FCRA, which gives certain guidelines and certain prohibitions
11:26to be followed by any such entity who get any foreign funds.
11:31And accordingly, you know, the CBI came into picture and they started doing the investigation.
11:38Now considering the kind of allegations, if it is proven, the punishment could be even
11:43five years and also it could have certain other NGOs who might be involved into taking
11:50such certain funds.
11:52Because there are also allegations by the CBI that this particular NGO has been, even
11:58after the lapse of the FCRA certificate, were taking money through their other associates
12:04and employees by way of commissions they were transferring the funds, which is again in
12:10violation of Sections 8 and 12, 4 of FCRA.
12:14So these are serious allegations and the main issue involved here is that these foreign
12:21entities who are transferring the funds to this particular NGO, the main purpose is,
12:26you know, to disrupt the functioning of the government and also the economy of the country.
12:31And you know, accordingly, the actions have been taken by the CBI.
12:37And I think, you know, the strictures will also be passed, considering the seriousness
12:44of the offences being committed.
12:48So it is a clear, as I said, violation of FCRA, which has been formed by the central
12:54government for certain purposes, so that, you know, the funds are utilised in the right
12:59direction for the right purposes and the NGO...
13:03Ashutosh, just, you know, taking off from that point you made about certain powers being
13:09at play trying to disrupt development work in the country, I want to go across to Sanjay
13:15Ashar on this one.
13:16Sanjay, do you see that there is perhaps a wider agenda at play?
13:20And I say that because two of these NGOs who have come under the scanner, there is enough
13:28investigation being done into whether they tried to stall the economic and development
13:35projects that were being, you know, that were being pursued by two particular entities.
13:41Now, this one, of course, was the Adani group, and the other is the JSW group.
13:46And there seems to be enough in these, you know, documents that we have had access to
13:52that seems to suggest that.
13:54How do you see it?
13:56I would say, yes, it's the tip of the iceberg.
14:00And shortly they want to suppress and they want to stall the economic developments.
14:07And at the moment, on the basis of the facts which are placed in the media, it's just these
14:13two groups.
14:14I don't know how many other groups will also get affected.
14:18But the point is that overall, the economic development of the country is trying to be
14:24is trying to be suffocated by these particular means.
14:29And so, therefore, the point is, he is absolutely right that by this mechanism, through the
14:35NGO mechanism and the subcontracting mechanism, it's trying to suffocate India's economic
14:41development and stringent actions have to be taken against the NGOs and the sub-NGOs
14:51as well.
14:53Mr. Ashir, this is Sandhya Ravishankar joining in.
14:56My question to you, and before I ask you my question, I want to ask my producer to pull
15:02up the graphic.
15:03It's a very interesting excerpt from the CBI-FIR where, you know, a large number of donations
15:09have come in from individual foreign donors.
15:12And look at that, that graphic on your screen, exact same amounts, many on the exact same
15:19days.
15:20And in fact, even a British citizen by the name of Banwari Lal had gifted Oxfam India
15:27a property worth four crore, which they sold, but declared it to be of a value of 2.46 crores.
15:35So there's a lot more to it than meets the eye.
15:39It's not just about protests.
15:42How are you looking at this?
15:43I mean, there are a lot of individuals who say that Soros is a bogey.
15:48This is all, you know, stuff that's made up by the right wing.
15:52So how do you look at it?
15:53Do you think it's just a conspiracy theory?
15:57It is a conspiracy theory.
15:59To my mind, further investigations need to be done.
16:03Because as you rightly pointed out on the number of individuals and the timing and the
16:10amount which they've donated to these NGOs, surely, as you rightly put, there is something
16:17more than meets the eye.
16:18And absolute stringent actions have to be taken against these individuals as also the
16:26NGOs, both.
16:28It can't just, we can't be silent.
16:32We can't be silent and surely action needs to be taken.
16:36Because it's the macroeconomy, it's the economic development of the country.
16:40And all of us know that India is going to be the next superpower.
16:46And in order to, in order that our economic development remains like a stunted growth,
16:53which is why all these activities are going on.
16:58Just coming back to you on that one, Sanjay Arshad, what kind of actions do you think
17:03need to be taken further?
17:05Because as Sanjay pointed out, you know, there's a large amount of talk about the fact that
17:09this is all conspiracy theories that are being, you know, built up by certain people.
17:14But investigations seem to reveal that that's not the case.
17:18True.
17:19So, therefore, for example, cancellation of the licenses, whatever money they have, stop
17:26using that money which is already there in their bank account.
17:29Obviously, even the FCRA say that whatever money is still there in your bank account,
17:34in case the FCRA license is cancelled and that money which is there in the bank account
17:40has come through the foreign remittances, should not be used.
17:45So the point being that not only against these institutions, Oxfam plus Life plus CISSD or
17:54even the other NGOs which are there, to whom this Oxfam and other NGOs have given money,
18:01even probe has to be taken against them as well.
18:04And the most stringent action be taken against them, including on the office bearers of these
18:11particular entities.
18:13Absolutely.
18:15Going back across to Ashutosh now, Ashutosh, you know, the investigation, and you also
18:19talked about it in the beginning, points to certain serious violations of the FCRA.
18:24And I want to also highlight another issue.
18:26It talks about discrepancies in annual returns, potential misutilization of foreign funds.
18:33Do you think that these NGOs also essentially work to undermine the legal framework that
18:40is meant to regulate these NGOs in a country like India?
18:44Because we often see a lot of reports questioning why the FCRA licenses were cancelled, while
18:51you know, people ignore the larger investigations that have been conducted.
18:57See, I do agree that, you know, that would be the reasons for cancellation of these FCRA
19:04certifications on many of the occasions.
19:06Now, if you see that we know that the NGO must be at least three years old to have any
19:13FCRA certification after following the due process of law.
19:17And if they don't follow these processes, their FCRA certificates are being cancelled
19:22by the government after examining the functioning, the way they are performing.
19:27If it is not following the due process of law, then it is being cancelled.
19:31So here, and also what my learned friend just raised, the issue of, you know, selling a
19:37property at a lower value, which was gifted by a donor.
19:41So I would, you know, there are chances of even money laundering, because if the property
19:46is being shown to be sold at a lower price, then where is the above money going?
19:51Whether this money is being taken in cash, and this cash is also being used for certain
19:56wrongful purposes by these NGOs.
19:58So that also needs to be, I think, examined by the CBI during investigation, so that it
20:04comes to the people, you know, as to what is happening, whether these NGOs are, you
20:10know, which are meant to do social work in the country are really doing that, or they
20:15are involved into some sort of, you know, foreign partners who just want to, you know,
20:21hinder the, you know, the economy of our country and also the stability of the government.
20:27So I think it is a very, very serious issue.
20:29It is not one NGO actually to be taken into consideration, there could be many such who
20:35would be joining hands and would be doing something in those directions.
20:40So that I think needs to be verified properly.
20:44And also, as we saw that the amounts which are exactly into the Indian currency, even
20:50after the transfer, that also raises a lot of questions, whether this money is actually
20:56being pumped in by, you know, some people who would be having some sort of political
21:02connections and they want to raise the funds in such a way that, you know, that would also
21:08be involving further sort of money laundering, etc.
21:11So I think it's a very serious issue and it requires a proper examination and investigation,
21:18not only maybe by the CBI, but I think in due course of time, even ED will join hands
21:24in the investigation to find out if there is further violation of the Prevention of
21:29Money Laundering Act as well.
21:31So, you know, so that I think is required to be done further by the central government.
21:37Ashutosh, I think we all agree that action and firm action must be taken.
21:42But my question is this.
21:45Now the person who was heading Oxfam India at the time throughout this period, Amitabh
21:50Behar, he has fled the country.
21:53There are reports that he is in Nairobi.
21:55Of course, these have not been confirmed.
21:57But he is definitely not in India.
21:59As far as the Centre for Policy Research goes, that is another mega NGO, which has been doing
22:06similar things and funding protests across the country.
22:11You have Salil Shetty, who was the Vice President of Open Society Foundations, and he was the
22:18person who was the key party in terms of rooting money from Open Society Foundations to people
22:26like Amitabh Behar of Oxfam.
22:29Now is it enough to just look at this as an FCRA issue?
22:35Should we not be, you know, going after these people?
22:39And I don't mean it as a witch hunt, but definitely look into it as an investigation.
22:45Find out if there's wrongdoing and question them before they flee the country.
22:49Absolutely.
22:50As you rightly said, this is what I said.
22:52It is not only the violation of FCRA, it could also be further violation of PMLA.
22:57And also, I think certain sections of the new law BNS will also be applied here.
23:02And if they have fled the country, we have extradition treaties with many of the countries
23:08and the CBI may take further help of, you know, Interpol and even the Blue Corner Notice
23:14or Red Corner Notice can be issued and the matter can be taken to the courts so that
23:19they can be brought back to India for further adjudication of the matter.
23:24So that this can become a deterrence for such other organizations if they are not actually
23:31acting for the purpose for which they were given permissions to act in the country and
23:36perform as NGO for social work.
23:38If they are not doing social work and they are doing something else, then the actions
23:42are required to be taken under the provisions of law, which are already existence in our
23:46country.
23:47I'm not saying that all NGOs would be doing like that.
23:50There are many such NGOs who are really doing good for the country, for the people and for
23:54the social welfare of the country.
23:56So those are obviously, for the reasons they have been formed, they are performing as per
24:01the rules.
24:02But whoever are not doing for whatever purpose they were, you know, required to be formed,
24:07then the actions have to be taken.
24:09There are laws which we already have and we don't need anything further or any, you know,
24:14framing of any further laws.
24:16And we have been very much diligent in, you know, making or amending laws from time to
24:22time depending on the, on different sorts of crimes and the ways the money has been,
24:28you know, being misutilized for wrong purposes.
24:32So I think these are sufficient for the CBI to do further investigation and to implicate
24:39further provisions of laws and to take help of the other investigating agencies who are
24:44experts into different fields along with CBI to come to a proper conclusion so that, you
24:51know, people understand as to what is happening in the country and whether the NGOs are really
24:57performing their work properly or they are involved or they have just tried to form NGO
25:03on the pretext of doing something else.
25:06Absolutely.
25:07And we agree with you when you say, you know, there are a lot of NGOs who are doing great
25:10work in India.
25:12One final question to you, Sanjay Ashar.
25:14Now there is an allegation that Oxfam India actually supported Oxfam Australia to push
25:20to stop mining by the Adani group.
25:22Now there is also an allegation that Oxfam India has had direct interest towards delisting
25:29Adani ports.
25:30Now something like this, you know, goes a long way in destabilizing not just the Adani
25:36group which at this point in time happens to be one of the biggest groups in the country.
25:41So in a sense, by extension, it also, you know, works against the Indian economy.
25:46Your comments?
25:47Absolutely.
25:48It is acting against the progress of the Indian economy and against the Indian economy.
25:54Adani is just one example.
25:56Because it is growing, because it is doing good work on infrastructure and for the development
26:01of economy, it is spending tons and tons of money and huge amount of money for the purpose
26:06of economic development.
26:08So shortly, Oxfam India, Oxfam Australia are all in that sense conspiring in order to act
26:17against the economic development.
26:19And one example is or two examples are Adani group and JSW group, which are doing great
26:24work as far as the economic development is concerned.
26:28Absolutely.
26:29And that also has to be further investigated.
26:32Oh yes.
26:33And you know, not just investigations, all of this should reach its, yeah, reach, you
26:39know, reach a conclusion.
26:41That is at least the intent of these investigations.
26:44Ashutosh, as well as Sanjay and Sandhya to you as well.
26:47Thank you very much, all of you for joining us on The Big Story this evening.
26:52Well, that's all we have time for on The Big Story on NDTV Prophet.
26:54Thank you very much for joining in.
26:56News and updates continue, so stay with us.