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Open Letter To Dr. Sandeep Pandey
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I am not a rich person by any standards. But like most Indians, I was (and still am) concerned about the plight of the millions in India further down on the economic scale. When I first came to the US for grad school, my earnings were by no means substantial, but I felt that it was important to contribute towards India?s development and did not think twice about foregoing my own comforts. Like many of my colleagues and friends, I decided that rather than complain about the problems facing India, I would try to do something about them. I volunteered my time and donated a part of my earnings to local charity organizations including AID and ASHA, two of the most active organizations on campus that I believed were doing development work in India. Although I no longer contribute to these organizations, I am distressed to hear reports that AID has been diverting funds for other purposes, including funding fundamentalist and political groups in India.[1] There is more to be said about these groups and their activities, but that is not the focus of this article.
Dr. Sandeep Pandey probably needs no introduction. The founder of the US-based ASHA for Education (ASHA), Dr. Pandey moved back to India in the 90s to take up social work full-time. He is the recipient of the Magsaysay Award and has traveled far and wide throughout India as well as the US, campaigning for various causes that he supports and helping raise funds for organizations that he supports, which include the Association for India?s Development (AID) and ASHA. He is also prominent on the lecture circuit in the US and is currently on one such tour, speaking at various AID and ASHA chapters, among other engagements, including one in the Bay Area. It was listening to people like Dr. Pandey and reading about organizations like AID and ASHA that motivated me to start thinking about my fellow citizens back home and got me interested in volunteer work.
Dr. Sandeep Pandey, to whom my questions are addressed, is considered by many to be a true Gandhian devoted to the Mahatma?s ideals of peaceful co-existence and non-violent struggle. In the past few years, I have been disturbed by reports of Dr. Pandey?s association with terrorist groups and shady organizations. I have been disturbed to note that ASHA and AID have been sharing the stage with obscurantist Muslim organizations in the US and fundamentalist left-wing groups in India. I am distressed to hear reports that these organizations have been diverting funds. Much of this has been under the guise of promoting ?secularism,? although strangely, ASHA and AID rarely work with Hindu organizations in India, even though Hindus form more than 80 percent of Indian population.
As a past donor to ASHA and AID, two organizations that Dr. Pandey works with, I would like to take this opportunity to ask him some questions. I have observed that most volunteers of ASHA and AID are decent people, truly interested in the development of India and the upliftment of its poor and downtrodden. But I also know that several of them share my concerns and have questions similar to mine. Several donors to these organizations have also expressed similar sentiments. I am sure all of them would also like to hear Dr. Pandey?s answers.
1. Dr. Pandey, who is sponsoring your present tour of the USA? How much expenditure does it incur? Don?t you think that the money spent on this tour could have been better used to help poor people in India instead?
2. Dr. Pandey, you participated in a meeting honoring Naxalites who have murdered law enforcement officers and civilians.[2] CPI-ML, which organized the meet, has also announced in its publication that you attended the meet and called for revolutionary fronts like CPI-ML to unite.[3] You claim to be a Gandhian. Could you please explain how a Gandhian could support Naxalite terrorist organizations?
3. Dr. Pandey, CPI-ML, whose conference you attended, calls for armed revolution and for raising an army.[4] Is it not hypocrisy to claim that you are a Gandhian but still attend CPI-ML conferences that call for armed revolution?[5] How does the violent and fundamentalist ideology of groups like CPI-ML fit into your self-professed Gandhian ideals? Do you wear one mask in front of American donors and volunteers and another in front of violent CPI-ML activists
4. Dr. Pandey, many ASHA donors and volunteers live in America and some are even US citizens. You have called America "the biggest evil power on earth?[6] and "the biggest terrorist state."[7] If so, why do you and ASHA, which you founded, raise funds from the USA?
5. Dr. Pandey, while you have no qualms about calling a democratic state like America terrorist, you have never used such words for real terrorists like the Al Qaeda and Taliban. In fact, you turned into an apologist for Al Qaeda in an interview you gave to a Muslim newspaper in the aftermath of the 9/11 massacre. Even though it had been proven that it was Al Qaeda terrorists who carried out the attacks you claimed that nobody knew who perpetrated the crime.[8] Could you please explain why you chose to whitewash a terrorist crime but didn?t take side with American victims?
6. Dr. Pandey, in the same interview, you also expressed support for Kashmiri separatism. But you have never expressed your support for and sympathies with Kashmiri Pandits, who are victims of Islamic terrorism. The entire Kashmiri Pandit community of more than 700,000 was ethnically cleansed from Kashmir and nearly 400,000 of them languish in refugee camps. Why did you not ever support the victims but instead supported the oppressors?
7. Dr. Pandey, the newspaper mentioned above has sympathized with the Taliban.[9] Do you agree with their Taliban sympathies? If not, why would a person like you, who calls himself a Gandhian, disseminate his views through such media channels, implicitly giving them credibility
8. Dr. Pandey, recently you wrote an opinion editorial for Al Jazeerah, where you demanded the release of an alleged Muslim criminal charged with abducting a woman.[10] Would you please explain why you opted to associate with a media outlet that has openly expressed anti-Semitic hatred and has been credibly accused of being connected to terrorist groups including Al Qaeda? Al Jazeerah has no circulation in India. Yet you chose it among several possible venues to publish your opinion on an issue concerning an alleged petty criminal from India. And perhaps even more surprisingly, Al Jazeerah published your piece. Which audience were you appealing to? What is your connection with Al Jazeerah?
9. Dr. Pandey, you have participated in several conferences and meetings organized by ASHA and AID in support of Muslim victims of the Gujarat riots. AID and ASHA have never organized any meeting, seminar, conference, or campaign in support of Hindu victims anywhere, but several other groups have organized such events in solidarity with victims of Islamic terrorism in Kashmir. Why have you never participated in or even expressed your support for such events? Do you think Hindu victims do not deserve sympathy? Would you urge ASHA and AID to make amends and sponsor events to express support for the Hindu victims of Islamic terrorism in Kashmir and Bangladesh?
10. Dr. Pandey, as mentioned above, ASHA and AID have never sponsored an event in support of Hindu victims of terrorism and ethnic cleansing. But they have sponsored extremely sectarian events in association with groups such as the Indian Muslim Council USA (IMC-USA).[11] One of the key speakers in one such convention was Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi who founded the banned Islamic terrorist organization, Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).[12] Would you be willing to publicly state that ASHA and AID should not associate with such organizations
11. Dr. Pandey, would you be willing to ask ASHA and AID to co-sponsor events with Hindu organizations like the Ramakrishna Mission, Sathya Sai Organization, and ISKCON Bangalore which do exceptional charitable work all over India and serves poor people everywhere without regard to religion, caste, or language?
12. Dr. Pandey, last but not the least, do you unequivocally and without reservation denounce Communist and Islamic terrorism? Will you publicly denounce Communist and Islamic terrorist organizations?
13. Dr. Pandey, during the tsunami fund raiser, AID channeled funds through the Democratic youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has been implicated for fomenting violence.[13] The AID website also reported this. However, when the news became public, and people started to express reservation over AID?s funding of communist outfits like DYFI, AID started removing the references to the diversion from its website.[14] Do you think what AID did was ethical? Would you publicly condemn AID for diverting charity funds to outfits that engage in violence?
Politicians mouth vacuous platitudes and resort to high-pitched rhetoric when confronted with difficult questions that raise specific and serious concerns. I hope Dr. Pandey will provide honest and direct answers to all these questions, and not evade them like a politician who has something to hide. He should do so, if not for my sake, at least for the sake of volunteers and donors who are concerned about where their time, dedication, and hard-earned money are going.
Most importantly, please do not repeat your evasive reply that had you been a Communist, Magsaysay Foundation would not have conferred the award on you. These awards do not negate such associations. After all, you would agree that Yasser Arafat won the Nobel Prize for peace despite his track record as the leader of dreaded terrorist groups. Please answer the questions honestly and directly so that the volunteers and donors of ASHA and AID could evaluate you.Yours truly,A former donor [Name withheld because of security concerns, and given the track record of terrorist groups which Dr. Pandey has been associated with].
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