On April 23, the Union home ministry instructed all banks through the Reserve Bank of India not to credit funds from the Ford Foundation to any person or organisation in the country without its prior permission.
This is the first time the Ford Foundation has been placed under a watch, after the US-based philanthropic organisation established its office in Delhi following an invitation from India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952. Since then the Foundation has made more than 3,500 grants totalling over $508 million to nearly 1,250 institutions.
The funding has been largely to non-profit organisations in India, but groups in Nepal and Sri Lanka, too, have received funds from the Delhi office.
In the last three years alone, the Foundation had made grants of about $23.9 million, of which $13.7 million were given in 2013.
In 2012, the amount provided in grants was $4.6 million where as it was $5.6 million in 2014 -- the year general elections took place in India and Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party came to power.
Now, the same BJP government has decided to monitor activities of the Foundation under the provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, so that grants are utilised 'for bonafide welfare activities' without compromising on interest of national security.
Under the FCRA, grants cannot be made for political purposes.
The Union home ministry's action against the Foundation is based on a report of the Gujarat government.
The report, reviewed by Business Standard, alleged that Sabrang Trust and Sabrang Communication & Publishing Pvt Ltd are "proxy offices of Ford Foundation and are being cultivated and positioned by the latter with some long-term plan."
The foundation has given $2,50,000 to Sabrang Trust and $2,90,000 to SCPPL. The trust has been receiving national and international funds to provide financial and legal assistance to the 2002 Gujarat riot victims.
"The Ford Foundation has supported an institution in India to be operating on the premise of stoking religious tensions with their social prejudices.
The Ford Foundation has encouraged Sabrang Trust advocating for a religion specific and Muslim supportive criminal code and also supported to keep the 2002 riots alive," the Gujarat government's report said.
In 2002, the Gujarat had witnessed one of the worst communal carnages killing around 1,000 people. Modi was then chief minister of the state.
Mails seeking an appointment with Foundation's Indian representative Kavita N Ramdas remained unanswered.
The Foundation, which has only a four-member team in India, however, responded to allegations through an email statement.
"We have been and continue to be deeply respectful of the laws of the land and, therefore, the process now underway.
"We wish to affirm that the Foundation does not fund political parties," it said.
"The Foundation does, however, work with a range of other entities, including non-governmental organisations, government and quasi-government entities, universities, and for-profit entities, depending on the needs of the particular work involved.
"This includes engaging for-profit entities to provide services to the foundation and its grantee communities.
Recent examples include a contract to provide professional services to farmer-producers in rain-dependent states on how to improve the marketing and sale of their agricultural produce, and another to increase internet connectivity for poor rural and urban communities," it added.
The foundation said it was yet to be contacted by the Union home ministry.
"If the government suggests methods by which we can strengthen and improve our grant-making processes, we will take swift and appropriate steps to incorporate them."
This is not the first time the US-based charitable organisation has come under scanner. In the past, the organisation was accused of being the front of the Central Intelligence Agency of the US.
Madhu Kishwar, senior fellow at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), said the Ford Foundation has been influencing polices of the Indian government through its donation to various organisations. "It was done at the behest of the Congress and the Left parties to attack the BJP.
We cannot allow such organisations to divide society in the guise of democratic rights for minorities," she said.
Kishwar has been championing the cause of completely banning the foreign donations in the country.
Image: Ford Foundation building in New York City; Photograph: Stakhanov~commonswiki/Wikimedia Commons
