NGO Corruption in India: April 2019

Monday 8 April 2019

Sabal Bharat Sansthan Jaipur – A Political Scandal in the Brewing

In a country where unemployment is at its highest, people are desperate to take any opportunity that comes their way. This is a fact that fraudsters count on, playing on the poor, vulnerable, and unemployed. One of the biggest scandals of India is fraud NGOs that target people such as these. These fraud NGOs of India claim they will help you, but do nothing for you.

One such organization is Jaipur's Sabal Bharat Sansthan. They have created a website that appears very professional, but what they offer is fake hope. Its main goal is not to get people the help and skills they need for employment, but to scam people of their money. The organization conducts exams across a number of cities around the country. Their target is unemployed and poor.

Under the guise of a government-funded organization, this company is run by founder Sunil Gurjar. His is a name that should be quite familiar, as he was involved in a big Rajasthan political scandal several years ago. Many people have their hands in this organizations' running; bureaucrats, government, civil servants, corrupt officials, and public servants. They all work together to take money from the poorest to line their own pockets. If you look on their website, https://www.sabalbharat.org/sabal-bharat-team, you will see that all of the members are retired bureaucrats.

The harsh reality of NGOs in India is that they paint a wonderful picture of what people can have, a settled life, a good job, and the skills to succeed. These are the dreams that people live for and the dreams that fraud NGOs of India rely on.

https://www.indiatoday.in/mail-today/story/textiles-ministry-files-complaint-against-ngos-1346760-2018-09-23

The organization begins by targeting those in need. They tell them what they want to hear and invite them to take a simple exam. They are offered free food, lodging, and accommodations, as well as skill training for a variety of areas, such as banks, hotels, and IT companies. All of this for taking one simple exam that will determine your skill level and, based on those merits, will allow you to be awarded one of their scholarships. They even have a specific syllabus' for their various levels of education.

It's the Sabal Bharat Exam that is the modus operandi of this organization. This is where they collect money. Candidates are required to pay an exam fee of INR 560 (about $9.00). That may not sound like a lot, but for the poor, it can be. And they are doing this on a large scale, taking this small amount for thousands and thousands of candidates, twice a year, in all the states of India, you can do the maths.

The exam is pretty much the only real thing about this company. After all, they need to have something tangible to make people believe they are a legitimate government-funded organization. It's the claims they make that, successful candidates can benefit from a number of training programs, are a lie. It's a fraud organization of Skill India program.

The state that their training programs are geared towards skill development, claiming to help empower people. Candidates are led to believe that, after having this training, they will be able to navigate the corporate world and find better employment opportunities.

After taking the exam, candidates are told that results will be published on their website and via text in no more than 2 months. However, those results never come. Sure, they post one or two results on their website, but it is believed that these candidates don't even exist. Once they have your money you won't hear from them again. Many candidates are still waiting, several months on, to hear anything at all.

The trick here is the small amount they take. It's enough to keep them under the radar. It also helps that they are hand-in-hand with many high ranking political and government people. Not many people are willing to fight to get back such a small amount. But the damage that this company has done to their hopes and self-esteem is irreparable.

https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-fraud-NGOs-in-India

It's more or less like a Ponzi or pyramid scheme. Each district salesperson is required to bring in as many candidates for testing (revenue) as they can. In order to give the test, they will have to pay the fees. The fees collected are pure profit. Once you have created your own infrastructure of people beneath you, you just sit back and let the money flow in.

The number of people who have contacts Sabal Bharat after taking the exam and hearing nothing back is high. These people are waiting for results to see which Sabal Bharat program they have qualified for. The founder, Sunil Gurjar, is not interested in helping people through education. He is only interested in helping fill his coffers.

The worst thing about this organization is that they have strong political and government ties. It's because of this that Sunil Gurjar manages to get away with cheating such a large number of people and there is no one who can speak out against him or his organization. It also casts a shadow over the legitimate government funded Skill India programs that actually do help people.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/99-ngos-are-fraud-money-making-devices-hc/story-2AMyh5VMGA0edUtvtRnAMP.html

In truth, the Sabal Bharat Exam holds no value and you will gain nothing from taking it. You will, however, lose time and money. It's important to know how to identify a fake NGO, and one step is to learn more about the background of the individual running the organization.

If you check the background of Sunil Gurjar, you will find it isn't his first encounter with the law. However, he seems to have no fear of breaking laws because no one will go up against him to stop him. You may recall the Bhanwari Devi Murder Case. It was one of the biggest political scandals of India that affected the entirety of India's middle class. It involved the sexual exploitation and murder of a government employee and was a campaign against Mahipal Maderna. In the end, it caused a downfall of Rajasthan's Congress government. And the person behind it? Sunil Gurjar!

So, if you have been considering getting any help from Sabal Bharat or taking their exam, think twice. All you end up doing is wasting energy, time, and money to get nothing in return.

References-

Tata Tapes Controversy - illegal Tapping of Phone Calls of Nusli Wadia

A big political scandal in India took place in the 1990s that involved the owners of a company called Tata Tea, terrorist group ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam), and the Assam government. Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, the then Chief Minister of Assam alleged that Tata Tea was involved in conduct deemed anti-national.

The situation came to light when a journalist for Indian Express, Ritu Sarin, published a story regarding illegal tapping of phone calls of Nusli Wadia, a business tycoon. The transcripts were published and involved a number of high profile individuals, including a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament, and Ratan Tata.

The History Behind the Controversy

It was during the 1990s that the ULFA, a banned terror group, had been very active in the Assam area. The group had been extorting funds from tea companies as a means of funding their activities. Fear made most of the tea companies pay the ULFA, however, Tata Tea refused. In 1997, ULFA was responsible for a number of militant activities and terror attacks. One such attack was the failed attempt at an assassination against the Chief Minister who headed the Assam government, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta. It brought publicity to the breaking down of law and order of the Assam region, which negatively impacted the Mahanta government. It was during similar circumstances in 1990 that his previous government was dismissed.

Mahanta visited Calcutta to raise funding for his party before the assembly elections but did not get a good response from the tea companies, more importantly from Tata Tea, who refused to pay anything.

In August of 1997 an ULFA member, Pranati Deka, was arrested, along with her baby and two others. They found a visiting card on one of the accomplices belonging to one of Tata Tea's senior executives, Brojen Gogoi. It was reported that he had gone with Deka to Mumbai for her to give birth and cover her medical costs and lodgings. Tata Tea had paid INR 50,000 and claimed it had not been aware of Deka's link to the ULFA.

Tata Tea top officials were interrogated by the Assam police, leading to the arrest of General Manager, SS Dogra under the charge of aiding and abetting ULFA in their unlawful activities. Gogoi was also wanted for questioning but authorities were unable to arrest him at the time. He was reported to have been abroad studying, however, reports claimed he was using a guest house in India to avoid the police. It wasn't until September that he turned himself in.

The Tata Tapes

The Tata tapes held conversations that took place between Nusli Wadia and a number of powerful industrial and political individuals. The tapes proved that the Tatas were attempting to coerce the central government to step in to deal with the issues they were having with the Assam government. It was also suggested that the Tatas were aware of Gogoi's whereabouts and had lied to the Assam government when questioned.

The mystery in this situation is who actually tapped Wadia's phones, The Central Government denied that it was them, and a probe was launched to find out who was responsible for infringing on these individual's privacy.

The controversy brought to light what the Assam tea industry was dealing with for the past two decades, grabbing the attention of the entire country. The industry had been putting up with extortion, kidnapping, and murder by militants of both the ULFA and NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland).

References:

1. http://indiatodaygroup.com/itoday/20101997/cov.html
2. http://www.india-today.com/btoday/22101997/tata.html
3. http://www.rediff.com/news/oct/13assam.htm
4. http://www.rediff.com/business/sep/15tata.htm
5. http://www.rediff.com/business/sep/16assam.htm
6.https://web.archive.org/web/19971007063854/http://www.expressindia.com:80/ie/daily/19971007/28050903.html
7.https://web.archive.org/web/19971023074806/http://www.expressindia.com:80/ie/daily/19971006/27950853.html

Radia Tapes Controversy - How one women controlled entire government policy in India through sexual favours

The Radia Tapes Controversy (also known as the 2G Spectrum Scam) is one of the Scandals of India took place between 2008 and 2009. It involved political lobbyist, Nira Radia of Vaishnavi Communications, and several of her media friends, such as Vir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times' editorial director, and Barkha Dutt, the group editor of NDTV. In these tapes, they are heard making promises to Radia, her political friends, and her corporate clients. The tapes show how one woman attempted to influence government policy via the control of journalists and politicians, how she destroyed careers and reputations.

During a one year period, the Home Ministry gave the Indian Income Tax Department to go-ahead to tap Radia's phones. It was part of their ongoing investigation into the possibility of money laundering, tax evasion, financial practices that were restricted. The decision was made after finance ministry had received an anonymous letter claiming Radia was a covert operator to a foreign government.

One question that was asked was, why was this particular anonymous letter taken so seriously? And how did it make it's way to the ministry's highest levels? It is believed that the letter came from a powerful organization that was known to some of the ministry's important people.

It was in 2010 that a magazine called OPEN published a story that included transcripts from some of these conversations between Radia and others involved, where Radia attempted to make deals related to the 2G Spectrum Allocation. Radia attempted to use people from the media to influence the decision of having A. Raja appointed as the telecom minister. Radia influenced news reports and Parliament discussion at the request of corporate houses.

The Motive Behind The Scandal

The motive here was the abuse of power by one small group of very powerful people within the public sector; politicians, journalists, and businessman. This group attempted to subvert the democratic system for their own benefit and interests.

Those involved tried to claim it was a breach of privacy, being tapped secretly. However, the argument is that it involved public interests, therefore the public should be made aware of what was going on. The media felt they had an obligation to report this to the public and their fundamental rights for freedom of speech. At one point, a media blackout that banned the publishing of the tapes would have defeated both freedoms of expression and public interest just to save the privacy of a small powerful, but a corrupt group of people trying to manipulate the system.

One main player who tried to prevent publication of these transcripts was Ratan Tata, an Indian industrialist. However, it was felt that the conversations revealed a number of immoral and illegal acts that the public had a right to know about. The strange part is that, where other people's reputations and careers were ruined, Tata emerged from the incident with barely a scratch to his, even though he was heard on these tapes trying to manipulate policy.

It was reported that only 100 out of 5,800 tapped conversations had been made public and these were enough to reveal how India was being run, the subservience of politicians, how court decisions can be fixed, how MP's will lobby for big business houses, and that everything in the country is managed by corporate.

References

1. http://expressbuzz.com/nation/radia-tapes-featuring-senior-scribes-create-stir/224516.html
2. http://business-standard.com/india/news/radia-shuts-vaishnavi/454061/
3. https://www.ibtimes.com/indian-medias-mighty-stand-exposed-wrong-side-2g-spectrum-scam-248166
4. http://www.zeenews.com/news670068.html
5. http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4595860
6. http://news.oneindia.in/2010/11/21/does-media-follow-unethical-biased-journalism.html
7.http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/96109/Top%20Stories/%27Radia+lobbied+to+get+Raja+telecom+ministry%27.html
8. http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/some-telephone-conversations
9. http://www.tehelka.com/story_main47.asp?filename=Ws1911102G_FALLOUT.asp
10. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_leaked-tapes-cbi-says-it-has-5851-recordings_1470650
11. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/120849/India/jpc-on-radia-tapes.html
12. http://www.mid-day.com/news/2010/apr/290410-india-inc-tapped-phone-tapping-leaked-report-ratan-tata-mukesh-ambani-sunil-mittal.htm
13. http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?268071
14. http://business.outlookindia.com/view.aspx?vname=IMP-Prabhu%20Chawla%20Gas%20judgement%20discussion-20090620-143207.wav
15. http://www.dnaindia.com/blogs/post.php?postid=318
16. http://openthemagazine.com/article/nation/i-am-there-you-want-me-to-speak-to-anyone
17. http://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/favourite-lobby-horses/265345
18. http://business.outlookindia.com/view.aspx?vname=Barkha--18-188819-0-10-20090522-094851.wav
19. http://business.outlookindia.com/view.aspx?vname=Barkha%20Dutt-02-188819-0-01-20090522-104733.wav
20. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_barkhagate-protests-in-140-characters-leave-no-space-for-gray-areas_1471128

NGO Corruption in India

Monday 8 April 2019

Sabal Bharat Sansthan Jaipur – A Political Scandal in the Brewing

Tata Tapes Controversy - illegal Tapping of Phone Calls of Nusli Wadia

Radia Tapes Controversy - How one women controlled entire government policy in India through sexual favours

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