India: RSS, 'corruption' and high society Vivekananda International Foundation

From: The Indian Express

At centre of stirs against graft, a body with RSS links, ex-babus

Manoj C G : New Delhi, Mon Aug 20 2012, 02:34 hrs

A high profile institute-cum-think tank in the heart of New Delhi’s diplomatic area in Chanakyapuri, set up on land allotted by the then Narasimha Rao government, a clutch of former intelligence officials running the place, and a group of well-known RSS swayamsewaks — they are the silent force behind the recent anti-corruption movements in the country, especially the one led by Baba Ramdev.

In fact, it was at the Vivekananda International Foundation last year that a decision was taken to form an anti-corruption front under Baba Ramdev — this was just days before Anna Hazare sat on his first fast. The foundation’s director is Ajit Doval, a former director of the Intelligence Bureau. It was at the foundation again that the first serious attempt was made to bring Ramdev and Team Anna members together.

Inaugurated in 2009, the Vivekananda International Foundation is a project of the Vivekananda Kendra, founded in the early 1970s by former RSS general secretary Eknath Ranade and headed now by RSS pracharak P Parameswaran.

It was in April last year that the foundation, together with RSS ideologue K N Govindacharya’s Rashtriya Swabhiman Andolan, organised a seminar on corruption and black money attended by both Ramdev and Team Anna members Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi.

At the end of the two-day seminar, held on April 1 and 2, an “anti-corruption front” was formed with Ramdev as patron and Govindacharya as convenor. The members included Doval; RSS swayamsewak S Gurumurthy; Bhishm Agnihotri, who was India’s ambassador-at-large during the NDA regime; and Prof R Vaidyanathan of IIM-Bangalore, who co-authored a BJP task force’s report on black money along with Doval and Ved Pratap Vaidik.

The two-page statement at the end of the seminar said that Ramdev had declared an “all-out war on corruption and that the front would announce immediate actionable programmes and reach out to like-minded anti-corruption organisations, institutions and individuals”.

Soon after the seminar, Hazare’s fast began, and in April end, Ramdev announced his June 4 Ramlila Maidan protest — his first public showdown with the UPA government.

Apart from the fact that it operates from government-allotted land, the foundation’s advisory board and executive council consist of a host of former intelligence officials, retired bureaucrats, diplomats and ex-military men. These include former RAW chief A K Verma, ex-Army chief V N Sharma, ex-Navy chief Vijai Singh Shekhawat, ex-air chiefs S Krishnaswamy and S P Tyagi, former BSF chief Prakash Singh, ex-foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal, former deputy national security advisor Satish Chandra and ex-home secretary Anil Baijal.

Asked about the seminar, Doval said it was on an issue of national importance and was attended by, among others, Subramanian Swamy, Justice M N Venkatachaliah, Justice J S Verma, former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash Kashyap and ex-chief election commissioner N Gopalaswamy.

However, Doval added that while he supported anti-corruption agitations, the Vivekanand Internation Foundation had no role in the protests. “We strongly feel that it is time a stronger, stable, secure and prosperous India plays its destined role in global affairs and finds its deserved place among the comity of nations. Corruption and black money are draining India. We not at all feel defensive about talking about these issues,” he said.

Interestingly, apart from Ramdev and Team Anna members, another of those who had attended the seminar, Swamy, also announced the formation of an anti-graft front — ‘The Action Committee Against Corruption in India’. While Ramdev was the chief guest at its first meeting, the committee’s members included the same cast of Govindacharya, Gurumurthy, Doval and Vaidyanathan.

Asked about Ramdev’s connection to the foundation, Govindacharya said he has been a “frequenter”. “Ramdev and I have been in constant touch since August 2010 (Ramdev had travelled to Gulbarga in December 2010 to attend Govindacharya’s Bharat Vikas Sangam). He used to come to the Vivekananda Foundation. He had a few places in Delhi, but the foundation was the easiest place for him and for others too for meetings,” he said.

Govindacharya also admitted that the seminar hoped to have “some sort of closer coordination” by bringing together the Ramdev and Anna camps.

The RSS ideologue didn’t deny the Sangh link either. Asked if it would be wrong to assume that the Vivekananda Kendra and foundation were all connected with the RSS, he said: “One can deduce that... Organisationally, the RSS doesn’t get involved. Swayamsevaks take initiatives.”

Doval, however, said the foundation was independent and had nothing to do with the RSS. “We had no role in his (Ramdev’s) agitation. None of us went there. We are an independent and registered body. We don’t receive government funding,” he said.

Mukul Kanitkar, who was with the foundation earlier, pointed out that bureaucrats, including those from the PMO, regularly attend seminars organised by the foundation on issues of national security. In fact, Union Culture Minister Kumari Selja is scheduled to release a book called ‘The Historicity of Vedic and Ramayana Era: Scientific evidences from the depths of ocean to the heights of skies’, at the foundation this week.

Despite his association with Ramdev’s campaign, Govindacharya now feels the movement is over. “Both the movements (Anna and Ramdev’s) are lost in the black hole of power and party politics... Ramdev would now become an ally or promoter of the BJP cause,” he said.