Open letter to Dr. Sandeep Pandey
Open letter to Dr. Sandeep Pandey
I am myself shattered on hearing this. Want to see what is your opinion!!
I am myself shattered on hearing this. Want to see what is your opinion!!
posted by Homarjun Agrahari at 4:53 AM
8 Comments:
Read the comments to "Which of the two countries has been found in your experience to be more keen in solving this problem?" by Sandeep pandey in this interview...
He says, " Well, both the countries have made mistakes over Kashmir. India has always maintained to talk under Shimla agreement and has stressed for bilateral talks and Pakistan has tried to internationalise the issue. But of late Musharraf has been more forthcoming asking for talks on Kashmir and I think India is evading that question by asking Pakistan to first stop cross-border terrorism and cross-border terrorism happens from both sides as Pakistan intelligence agency ISI is active in India while India’s intelligence agency RAW is active in Pakistan and for the conducive atmosphere- for- a dialogue this cross-border terrorism from both sides has to be stopped. Moreover, Pakistan has from time to time asked for a ‘No War Pact’ with India but India has never accepted it. "
http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/2004/16-31Jan04-Print-Edition/1631200434.htm
He defends ISI activities and blames RAW of causing misery in Pakistan? Its well known fact that pakistan has never faced any threats from RAW, while in India, we face one attack after another from ISI. Recently Afgan President too blamed ISI for terrorist activities. Its all messy, lots more needs to be dug out. Meanwhile Ganesh's justification of 80% funds, is like a cat drinking milk closing its eyes and assuming no one would see it.. Yes, 80% is going for good cause, but that 20% under such persons definitely has potential to undo the good done by 80%. Ha, not to forget regular dictat from AID central team to preferably pick projects from a pool which it has established?? Again, if we still are convinced that 80% is going for good, we should let the donors know the fact that AID TAMU doesnt have a control over the other 20%, which may end up going for spreading communist ideology!!
Ravi,
I have discussed this with the people associated with AID-TAMU and AID, and I have the following conclusion.
My perception of AID as an entity is judged mainly by the laws and the framework by which it conducts its activities. In the bylaws as descibed here (http://sahyadri.aidindia.org/content/view/85/67/), its objectives are:
AID, Inc. is a charitable organization. In addition it is a non-political, non-profit, secular organization. It is organized exclusively for charitable and educational purposes. Its main objectives are to raise awareness about poverty and related issues, raise funds, and to make charitable contributions for the development and welfare of the poor people and poor communities of India. This development and welfare is achieved through assisting, implementing, and supporting charitable projects focusing mainly on literacy, education, rural development, family planning, health care, social welfare, empowerment of people, and environmental responsibility. These projects are focused in villages, rural areas, slum areas or in other economically underprivileged regions. These charitable projects will be selected for funding based on the following criteria:
The project under consideration should conform with the objectives of this organization outlined above.
The project under consideration should have a detailed budget specifying how the stipulated amount would be used.
The project under consideration has a long term perspective.
The project under consideration concerns, involves and benefits people in the economically under-privileged sections of the Indian society.
To the extent possible, projects under consideration would concentrate on different regions within India.
Effort would be made to replicate successful ideas in previous projects, and to create channels of communication between people working in different projects.
The awareness, especially of the problems of the poor, is created through means such as informative newsletters, hand-outs, posters, videos, presentations, films, skits and seminars.
In addition to this, as long as AID does what it says in the bylaws, I am going to work for it. I am not going to leave it just becuase few people like the ones you mentioned are involve with it. If anything, such people make me want more to be associated with AID and make sure that they do not succeed in realizing their malintentions. I am still learning about AID by talking to more and more people and reading on internet.
Your comments are welcome, but not becuase I agree with all of them, but because I respect your opinion, as I do anyone else's.
As long as the framework of AID does not have a problem, I am gonna stick to it and contribute my time and effort in realizing the objectives.
Thanks for your comments though, but you are wrong in saying that the rest of 20% is soend here and there, no it is not so. The AID-TAMU had a say how will there money be spent and a right to vote against it. So I see no problem.
btw, do I know you?
It would be premature to shoot down any thought process on the assurance given by a group of students. To be honest, the volunteers part of the various chapters of AID are very honest, hard working, who are willing to run that extra mile so as to generate that extra penny that can help the underprivileged one. Unfortunately most of the volunteers (including me, when I kept my eyes shut), ignore to see behind assurances from the top central team. As far as the 80% is considered, let any AID chapter decide to send this money to any genuine project which has any sort of affiliation to organization other than left or organization closely related to communist ideology. Mission impossible!! Any routing of money that takes place is through AID central. Though the students might approve based on geniunity and outreach of the project, there are certain projects AID central team has put on hold. The reason generally given would be black listing of that organization by AID!! About the 20% fund, the chapters dont have any say in it. The Pakistan India peace walk project had requirements to pull money from the 80% of the funds and not the 20% and hence the chapters were consulted. One of the comments in your blog by an "anonymous" person claims that the peace walk was cancelled because of protest by students. That was just eyewash by the central team, claiming that they respect the student's view. The real reason behind the cancellation of the project was rejection of Visa and nothing else. If they really respected the students opinion then they wouldn’t have proceeded with applying for visa.
Sandeep Pandey has affiliation to ASHA, an organization that AID co-ordinates with. It is not question of just a single person's affiliation but a group of people which needs to be investigated. Below is one piece of information which we collected couple of years ago. Source: AID website (google cache, see below for URL). As Link is not permanent.
Document AID co-sponsors an event jointly with CAIR.
Description: CAIR is an organization known for the extreme views of its leaders. One person strongly associated with CAIR has been sent to jail for being a member of the Lashkar E Toyiba and has been sentenced to twenty years in jail for illegally acquiring firearms and explosives in order to train for terrorist missions against India in Kashmir. Amazingly an organization describing itself as Association for India's Development India co sponsored an event with such an organization. For more details click http://www.geocities.com/aid_india_info/AID_CAIR.html
(For easy viewing, Firefox would be a good option.IN IE you might have to click on a tool bar appearing on the page.)
It’s a bitter pill, which is better off taking right away rather than wait until matter turns out to be poisonous. Taking solace in set of assurance would do no good, neither for our country nor for our individual conscious. It’s time we pause our self for few moments, take a stock of the situation, rather than be part of a flow blindly. It could be a dangerous path, and in this case, it is. None of the AID volunteers would be able to deny any involvement of central team which I have mentioned, as this all has now been documented. However most of the volunteers at university level fail to analyse from one level above. I neither blame any of the volunteers nor myself for not being able to do so. Its just that our nearest ancestors too, for last few centuries have failed to see beyond what our two eyes can see, and hence have fallen prey in the hands of foreign conspiracies and the history is repeating not just here, back in India at present moment too. If one analysis what sort of threats our motherland is experiencing, our blood would start boiling. One example is, consider what our country was some couple of thousands years back, and now. The region encompassing today's Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh is no more with us. Part of Kashmir is now also lost, and next is the slowly disintegrating North east region of India and then the Naxalite dominated region, which Sandeep Pandey supports.
Got carried away, and deviated from our actual concern. My apologies for that.
About you knowing me, I atleast don’t know you. Just that I Came across your blog in my quest to look for this famous open letter to sandeep pandey and penned down some thoughts after reading Former AID TAMU president Ganesh's comment.
By the way, one cannot expect communist to follow the bylaws though they might have agreed upon. Can the India pakistan peace march fit into any of the objectives laid down in the bylaws?
Hey Ravi,
Lets talk on phone if you dont mind. I want to either work for AID (if it is what it stands for) or shut it down (if it does not do what it is for). I cant just sit and not do antthing.
leave your number on my email homarun a3 gmail dot com or call me at 9797395257
Hey AIDers…specially those irked by my previous posts, may be even making yourselves uncomfortable. Well, its all clarified here. One of my friends found it and sent it to me. Its actually a good news for all of us..atleast for me.
http://indiauncut.blogspot.com/2005/02/politics-of-social-work.html
Thanks Aninda, Ganesh, Kapil, and Deep for participating with me in the discussion.
Homarjun
http://www.aidindia.org/AIDstatement/
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