It’s time for FATF to question India

Muslims, whether they live in India or Pakistan, are the target of India’s malice originating from the resentment over the thousand-year-long Muslim rule in the Sub-Continent. According to the self-created facts of India’s ultra-right-wing Hindu organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), since Hindus were subdued, dehumanised and slaughtered by the Muslims during their rule, the Hindus today should take revenge for that.

The mechanisms used for this revenge are forced conversions, humiliating and killing Muslims, and eliminating Islamic culture from textbooks, academic debate and symbolic interactions. The hate-mongering campaign against Muslims is not limited to India; instead, its tentacles spread globally, with the Indian diaspora actively participating in morally and financially supporting the RSS and its policy implementation wing, the Sangh Parivar. Evidence has been produced on various occasions by none less than the International Human Rights Watch on the use of laundered money in the RSS killing rampage in India. Unfortunately, the international financial watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), never confronted India on the breach of international norms.

The RSS was founded in 1925 in Nagpur by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar to create a Hindu state “designed on the rock bed of Hindu nationalism”. The RSS-affiliated organisation, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), formed in 1964, has been involved in organising and communicating the RSS message to Hindus living outside India. It holds conferences for Hindu religious leaders across India and abroad. The Bajrang Dal, the militant wing of the RSS, was formed in 1984 to mobilise youth for the Ram temple campaign. The Jana Sangh Party was birthed in 1951 to run the political wing of the RSS. In 1980, it was renamed the Bahartiya Janata Party (BJP). Since coming into power, whether in Gujarat or the Centre, the BJP has stacked the government’s inner ranks with VHP and RSS members devoted to implementing Sangh Parivar policies and programs.

The BJP’s militant outlook is reflected in its manifesto, in which the distribution of arms is included as part of security measures. Other proposed “security” actions outlined in the manifesto included training youth to counter terrorism; training them in the use of weapons and issuing them arms licences; and making special efforts to attract private sector in manufacturing of defence equipment in Gujarat.

In April 2002, Human Rights Watch issued a report titled ‘We Have No Orders to Save You’. The report chronicled the atrocities meted out to Muslims in Gujarat under the gaze of the

BJP government in power. The report established the links of Sangh Parivar with charity outfits in the US and the UK as major sources of funding for Sangh activities in India. Another report issued in November 2002 titled ‘The Foreign Exchange of Hate: IDRF, and the American Funding of Hindutva’ mentioned details of financial ties between the Indian Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), a US-based charity, and Sangh Parivar groups that were involved in attacking Muslims and Christians to force them to convert to Hinduism. Of the 150 pieces of documentary evidence used in the report, two-quarter was published by the RSS and its affiliates. ‘The Concerned Citizens Tribunal — Gujarat 2002 Crime Against Humanity’ report further details the international financial linkages of the Sangh Parivar with UK-based charity Hindu Sevak Sangh (HSS) that collects and contributes large sums of money to finance Sangh Parivar terror-related activities in India.

Similarly, VHP, known as World Hindu Council abroad, finances the Bajrang Dal from the money it receives as charity from the UK and the US.

Facts gleaned from the US tax records and the HSS annual reports suggest that from 2019 to 2020, the HSS, with its 222 chapters operating in 32 US states and 166 cities, joined hands with 426 other organisations in the US across 198 cities for fundraising for the RSS. According to the report, the collective efforts of the organisations had impacted 45,000 families. Participation in the HSS weekly programmes has reached 8,000 participants, including a large majority of youth.

The Charity Commission for England and Wales published an inquiry report on HSS in 2015. It revealed incidents of gross mismanagement by the trustees who had failed to comply with the rules and regulations of the charity law.

The findings of the South Asian Citizen Web, an online platform promoting dialogue on South Asia, in its analytical report of official tax records from 2001 to 2014, mentioned that the US-based charity groups had sent millions of dollars to the RSS-affiliated organisations. Between 2001 and 2012, Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation and VHP sent $27 million and $3.9 million, respectively. Sewa International sent $3.3 million to various right-wing Hindu groups in different parts of India, and the Infinity Foundation doled out $1.9 million to universities and research organisations in grants for promotion of Hindu supremacist agenda.

Other than charity organisations, the Indian Real Estate and gold businesses have also been found raising money to finance terror-related activities of RSS, Sangh Parivar and BJP against the minorities of India.

These are just the tip of the terror-financing iceberg the international community is sending to India in the garb of charities, real estate and gold investment. The blood of Muslims and other minorities shed during the killing sprees financed by these charities is not only on the people giving charity but also on the international leadership and FATF that have ignored taking cognizance of sources of terror financing in India.

Being part of the FATF group, India has been manipulating in its favour the 40-member organisation mandated to tackle money laundering, terror financing and other threats to the global financial system.

FATF works through 40 international standards to guide national authorities in implementing legal, regulatory and operational measures.

This November, the FATF is due in India to review its performance against terror financing and money laundering. One expects the organisation to take a rational, non-partisan and pragmatic view of India’s socio-political parties’ activities to glean through their funding sources. Not to forget that India’s terror financing and money laundering network spread across the world is also feeding into terrorist organisations, such as the TTP and BLF, to destabilise Pakistan.

It is time for the international community to see through the democratic veneer India has been donning to fulfil its Hindutva agenda.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th, 2023.

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