Sonia Vs The Government

THE Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) is on the warpath. The much pampered and privileged NGO, which has Sonia Gandhi as its chairperson, is crossing swords with the very government which has funded it liberally. In what is seen as blatant arrogance, the RGF has refused to abide by conditions binding to all government-funded organisations. Not only has the Foundation denied the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) access to its book of accounts, but it has made it clear that it will not submit copies of its annual reports to be tabled in Parliament. To top it all, the RGF has refused to reserve jobs for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs and STs) on the grounds that the Foundation already has sufficient staff and professionals with experience are hard to find among the underprivileged classes.

The most privileged group in the country runs the RGF. The board of trustees flaunt the most distinguished names in Indian public life. Besides chairperson Sonia Gandhi, its members include the President, the Prime Minister, P. Chidambaram, Sam Pitroda, Amitabh Bachchan, Rahul and Priyanka, Suman Dubey and M.J. Akbar. The Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies, run by the RGF, includes Abid Hussain, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, director of Unilever Ashok Ganguly, scientific adviser Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Prof Ravinder Kumar, director of the Nehru Memorial Museum, and other luminaries from the world of academia.

Yet, in spite of the impressive VIP line-up, the RGF wants Government funds without any strings attached. The Foundation has made it clear that its funds which stem from an accumulated corpus of Rs 25 crore are not open to Government audit through the CAG. Points out Pulok Chatterjee, secretary of the RGF: "This (the Foundation) is not a state subject. This institution deals with community welfare programmes and we have our own set of chartered accountants who audit accounts. There is no question of agreeing to the kind of demands put forth by the Planning Commission."

What has provoked the Foundation to spell out its "Government funds but no strings attached" stand is a grant of Rs 1 crore released by the Planning Commission to the RGF this March. The money was meant to propagate Rajiv Gandhi’s grandiose vision of a panchayati raj. The RGF was to set up a task force on panchayats to "act as a catalyst for proper implementation of the 73rd Constitution Amendment Act which gives constitutional status to local governments of this country and enjoins the state governments to make them effective units of the government".

However, some conditions would have to be abided by the RGF before the money could be released. The Planning Commission contract stipulated that the money would be made available only if the funds were made accountable to a Government audit to be placed on the floor of Parliament and provision was made for reservation of jobs for SCs and STs in the Foundation.

Chatterjee, a career bureaucrat sent on deputation to the RGF in 1993, reportedly at the request of Sonia Gandhi, was quick to react to the conditions laid down by the Planning Commission. He wrote to the Commission that if the provisions were applied to the RGF, the Foundation would be more than glad to return the money given to it. The RGF stand was that "the Foundation has certain specified objectives and any constraints in fulfilling these objectives because of outside control will not be conducive to our efforts. "

But such arrogance could be counter-productive. Finance Ministry officials predict that the RGF might run into rough weather if it persists with its present stand since the Foundation is the recipient of many such fundings from different ministries of the Government. For instance, not much seems to be known about the Rs 55 lakh grant given to the RGF in 1993-94 by the Planning Commission. This is in spite of the fact that a similar bond had been executed at the time. But then the RGF had not raised objections of the kind now being taken up.

The matter does not end here. The RGF has also turned down similar provisions which would apply to it regarding two one-time corpus fundings from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD). This year the Home Ministry allotted a corpus of Rs 1.5 crore for the Project Interact Scheme of the Foundation. This project is meant to bene-fit nearly 500 children orphaned by terrorist violence in Punjab, Andhra, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Tripura and Assam. The Foundation claims it meets the costs of school fees, uniforms and books up to the senior secondary school.

The other grant of Rs 1.5 crore from the HRD Ministry is for the Foundation’s village library programme. According to RGF officials, this scheme is expected to "provide for the means for sustaining literacy" and "to promote documentation and dissemination of culture, folklore and traditions". According to an RGF brochure, "though there has been much talk on producing literature emanating from the rural areas, we are pursuing it in a serious manner" and "the books are displayed in the open, enabling the reader to feel, touch and see them."

In both cases, the Foundation ruled out Government monitoring of its affairs, either by way of audit or through any parliamentary scrutiny. Chatterjee says that he would be writing to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the HRD Ministry as well as the Finance Ministry’s Expenditure Department, telling them that they are free to take the corpus funds back. The RGF’s stand is that it will brook no Government interference.

Why is the RGF not opening out its books for scrutiny? According to an insider, the expenditure pattern of the Foundation is not going to be accepted by Government auditors who will apply the same yardstick as they do to similar Government-funded NGOs. "The high-profile visitors. Their boarding and lodging and other expenses in the best possible hotels in the capital. Who is going to account for that. Not Government auditors, who are used to modest TA-DA routines. There could be other anamolies as well," says the source.

As for reserving jobs for SCs and STs, which is mandatory under the revised reservation policy, Chatterjee says that with a staff strength of 60 at the Foundation, there is scarcely any need to hire more people. Chatterjee spelt out his stand in a strongly-worded letter to the Planning Commission. To quote the letter: "The Foundation is running a large number of projects through NGOs of repute and it is imperative that its funds are properly utilised with a view to optimum benefit to the underprivileged sections of society. In this background, it is necessary for the Foundation to recruit people on the basis of professional qualifications and suitable experience. Any dilution of standards in our recruitment is bound to affect the utility of our programmes at the grassroot level."

Finance Ministry officials point out that all one-time grants given by the Government have to be put under the official microscope. Well-placed sources in the Planning Commission add that earlier this year they had been "unofficially" told that all ministries were expected to give donations of Rs 1 crore to the RGF. They indicate that the Union Health Ministry is expected to make available the grant. Planning Commission officials also indicate that several other departments may be ready to provide assistance, notwithstanding P.V. Narasimha Rao’s failed attempt to push through a Rs 100 crore grant spread over five years to the RGF in 1992.

With a philanthrophic Government and well-meaning friends in the corporate sector, the financial health of the Foundation is becoming rosier by the day. Besides the Government largesse, the country’s top industrialists are also falling over each other to donate generously. A look at the RGF corpus is revealing. In 1991-92, it totalled Rs 11.17 crore; in 1992-93, it rose to Rs 16.29 crore; to 19.67 crore in 1993-94 and yet further to Rs 22.46 crore in 1994-95, making it the only foundation in the country which is actually adding to its corpus.

There is no doubting the fact that the RGF is high profile. Its headquarters is a sprawling four-acre architectural marvel situated in the heart of the capital, barely a few yards from Parliament House. The Foundation frequently organises well-attended international seminars where social and community welfare issues are discussed. But are these conferences a facade? Says social scientist Rajni Kothari: "The RGF seminars are an effort to seek legitimacy by inviting top foreigners and Indians. It was meant to be the headquarters of the AICC. Now it has been turned into Sonia’s private preserve." Besides, he points out: "Its anti-poverty programmes are designed to put pressure on the Government so that it goes slow on the Bofors investigation."

People long connected with the Nehru-Gandhi family trusts are reticent to speak. Former minister of state for finance, Rameshwar Thakur, whose firm Thakur-Vaidyanath are the offi-cial chartered accountants for RGF, protests that it is not right for auditors to comment on the financial state of affairs of companies it looks after. "Ask me anything but this," says Thakur, who is also a former chairman of the National Herald and a family loyalist.

However, the initial damage seems to have been done. Officials at the Finance and Home Ministries are now involved in endless discussions on how funds were granted in the first place without Finance Ministry clearance. But in an election year, when Sonia’s goodwill is seen as being "crucial" for the Congress, can Rao’s government take on the might of the RGF for a few hundred crores?