बिलगेटवा

Dinesh C Sharma
Journalist and author

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and head of international charity, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), recently visited India and met a number of top government leaders, including the Prime Minister. In normal course, such a visit would be considered routine in government circles and for public figures like Gates. But it turns out that this was not a routine visit where mere courtesy calls were made and nice pictures tweeted. Prior to Gates’ visit and his meeting with the Prime Minister in November, Gates had hosted Modi in New York and bestowed upon him the ‘Global Goalkeeper Award’ for success of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on September 24. These two meetings — in New York and New Delhi — signal new bonhomie between Gates and the Indian government, virtually ending the unofficial embargo the Modi government had imposed on BMGF activities in the Indian health sector in 2017.

The controversy then related to allegations that the BMGF is meddling in key technical affairs of the country, particularly in the sensitive area of immunisation, through its partnerships with the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), which is supported by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The Gates Foundation had funded an activity called ‘evidence to policy’ at the Immunisation Technical Support Unit (ITSU), which in turn acted as secretariat of another key body called the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI). This is a crucial panel that examines scientific evidence on the effectiveness of new vaccines and recommends their inclusion in the national vaccination programmes. Following the allegations, mainly led by Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM, an affiliate of the RSS), the Health Ministry decided to move the NTAGI secretariat to one of its research centres — the National Institute of Family Health and Welfare. The agreement with the  BMGF to run the ITSU was not renewed and the PHFI was put under the scanner of the Ministry of Home Affairs for its foreign-funded projects, including from the BMGF. 

That’s why when the PM decided to accept an award given by the BMGF, it raised the hackles of the SJM. Consistent with its stand against the foundation, its spokesperson Ashwini Mahajan tweeted on September 2 to “request the PM to reconsider this award, given the shady past of BMGF. BMGF is no philanthropist, they are doing business in the guise of philanthropy. They are also under severe allegations of conducting illegal and unethical medical trials to foster their business.” The tweet by Mahajan was in reply to one by Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the PMO, which had said, “another award, another moment of pride for every Indian, as PM Modi’s diligent and innovative initiatives bring laurels from across the world. Sh @narendramodi to receive award from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan during his visit to the US.” 

The stand taken by the SJM basically echoes the sentiments expressed by many in the global health community about the increasing influence of Gates on national immunisation policies in many countries, its inherent conflict of interest in promoting certain vaccine manufacturers and the power of capitalist philanthropy. These people welcomed the Indian government’s move to restrict the activities of the foundation, even though it was a token move because Gates continued to do business with some other government entities and state governments like Bihar. 

After the New York award to the PM, the foundation’s activities now extend beyond immunisation, and include a wider ambit of nutrition and agriculture. Gates, during his meeting with the PM in November in Delhi, is said to have “reinforced his foundation’s commitment to supporting the Government of India, in its efforts to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), with a particular focus on health, nutrition, sanitation and agriculture.” The PM too reciprocated by welcoming “data and evidence-based thoughtful interventions and support by development partners.”

In line with this widened agenda, Gates signed three key agreements with the government, including the one with the Ministry of Health and another with the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Under this, the BMGF will provide the Ministry of Health "technical, management and programme design support" to strengthen primary healthcare, including "improving nutrition services and increasing the immunisation reach." The Ministry of WCD handed over a "letter of intent" to the Director of BMGF's India country office, details of which have not been announced. The most problematic is the agreement Gates has signed with India’s top medical body — the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) — for “collaborative research and training programme between India and the US, including enhancement of research capacity.” The collaboration will include fellowships for young scientists. Such allurements in the past have led to an impression that they allow international agencies to develop ‘soft power’ within government agencies. Already, a number of large public health research studies are sponsored or funded by the Gates Foundation. Findings from these studies are often used as evidence to formulate policies. 

It is precisely this kind of wide-ranging collaboration that public health advocates have been warning against, as they open the door for a non-state actor like Gates to exercise huge power and access into some of the highly technical, strategic and decision-making mechanisms within sovereign governments. The U-turn by the government on its ‘no foreign influence in health policy-making’ is intriguing. The agreements allow Gates to work through its ‘grantees and other partners’ in India. This opens doors for a number of players as virtually all major outfits are Gates grantees, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; Global Vaccine Alliance; Primary Health Care Performance Initiative etc. 

Traditional philanthropy was never used to set any specific agenda or drive any. The work of Gates Foundation is all about being in the driving seat of global health. International corporate-led foundations are not answerable to people nor are they open to scrutiny of any kind. They wield too much power without accountability. That’s why the new partnerships with Gates raise more questions than they answer. 
खालील साठी म्हणे १०० कोटी अब्रूनुकसानीचा दावा आहे

Friday, 16 February 2018

PHFI’s Rs 100 crore scam and ensnaring of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute in a corrupt deal: impostors’ club hurtles from fraud to fraud (UPDATED)

By Kapil Bajaj

Twelve years after it was fraudulently implanted into government by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) continues to engage in corruption, fraud and criminality to fulfill its illegitimate objectives and to cover its tracks.

(Having received more information from my sources after the publication of this article, I have updated this article on 15-16 March 2018. Updates are additional information inserted at appropriate places in brackets and without italics. Apart from these insertions and a few more Web-links, the original text remains unchanged.).

I received a call in November 2017 from someone – let’s call her/him Source One – who worked for PHFI at a senior position for a long time until she/he had had enough of the skulduggery that she/he witnessed there and resigned.

Source One told me there has been a scam amounting to more than Rs 100 crore in PHFI, wiping out the entire government contribution of Rs 65 crore to the ‘initial fund corpus’, which has been suppressed by president K. Srinath Reddy and his henchmen.

("PHFI lost Rs 108 crore to a fixed deposit swindle in the year 2013-14, which was more than half of its fund corpus.

That left only about Rs 100 crore of fund corpus out of which about Rs 20 crore has been frozen as security," sources said.

In 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had personally promoted PHFI and had the government contribute Rs 65 crore to the fund corpus of PHFI to be primarily used for building two public health school campuses.

"That grant has been wiped out, which means PHFI now has no money to build upon large pieces of land acquired in states.")

PHFI has redacted its publicly available reports in order to hide the swindle which took place through collusion between scamsters within PHFI and those claiming to represent Dena Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), Source One said.

("Large portions of publicly available annual reports were obscured, in order to hide the theft of funds." sources said.

Despite its claim that Union Health Secretary and other top government officials sit on its governing board, PHFI has never made public the minutes of its board meetings, not even after it was ordered in February 2012 by the central information commission or CIC to be RTI-compliant.)

No media organisation has written or shown anything that will name PHFI in connection with the scam which (according to media reports) is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Not a word.

(A Times of India report of 07 Sep. 2014 does name PHFI as having been cheated of Rs 82 crore crore through a “cash credit scam” involving the lure of big “returns on fixed deposits and later withdrawal of money through cash-credit using these FDs”.)

Head-Finance Amit Chaturvedi, who is directly answerable for the stolen funds, continues to be on the payroll of PHFI while propriety demands he should have been the first to quit or be asked to step down, Source One said.

“Absolutely no one in PHFI has been held to account for the massive fraud even though, as far as I can understand, there is criminal culpability of the people on whose watch the funds were siphoned off – including that of Srinath Reddy.”

("Asked why hasn't Head-Finance been fired, Reddy said: 'If we let go of him, that would be held as proof of wrongdoing on our part'.")

Source One said the swindle and the cover-up took place during the chairmanship of N.R. Narayana Murthy – who has since Jan. 2015 been enjoying his second stint as the chair of the corrupt private club, the first being July 2011-Oct. 2013 – showing what hypocrisy the Infosys man embodies in projecting himself as an advocate of high standards of "corporate governance".

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) – which led the gang of capitalist racketeers in setting up PHFI (which should most appropriately stand for 'Public Health Fraud of India') in 2006 – has washed its hands off the whole episode and government representatives on the PHFI board have predictably been supine.

Plots of land acquired in states for setting up public health schools haven't been built upon, which is another big scam, Source One said.

("PHFI is currently sitting on about 160 acres of land, acquired from state governments for free, most of which is lying vacant. It has no wherewithal to build on that land. So it's nothing short of land grab," sources said.

"Only Gandhinagar campus has been built with state government assistance. In Hyderabad over 40 acres of land is lying vacant. Public health schools in Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR, and Shillong are running on rented properties.

In Shillong, the state government has taken back the land earlier given," sources said.)

“All the bungling and mismanagement has caused a haemorrhage of workers, shrinking PHFI from a 1000-plus organisation to about half that strength," Source One said.

("A large number of key people have left PHFI. There's anyway little money to retain talent. Some senior people have gone without salary for the last three months. Almost everyone is now on 10-20 per cent contract, which means one gets paid only for 10-20 per cent of the time they would have worked had they been working full time.")

Meanwhile, K. Srinath Reddy, the criminal-minded president of PHFI who, in August 2012, forged a document (purportedly a copy of the signed and stamped document setting out the composition of PHFI governing body as on 31 March 2006.) and had it sent to me under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, continues to enrich himself, drawing a pay package of about Rs one crore per annum.

(Reddy the crook has indeed come a long way since the time he worked as a cardiologist at New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences or AIIMS on a modest salary. 

While working at AIIMS-New Delhi, he wangled himself a wholly illegal “deputation” to PHFI, the impostors’ club that he himself helped to register as society along with Rajat Gupta of McKinsey and six other wheeler-dealers and hirelings. 

His is thus a Jeffery Archeresque tale of how a humble but scoundrelly public official helped carve a parasitical private empire inside government and manoeuvred himself into the position of its fabulously-paid steward.

Reddy pulled that off by hitching his wagon to a ‘star’ which in his case was Rajat Gupta, the suave henchman in India of American corporate interests and a favourite crony of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s. 

Gupta became the founding chairman of PHFI and made Reddy the chief executive, but had to give up his position after falling foul of the law in the US.

Gupta was found to be involved in the Galleon insider trading ring; he was later to be prosecuted for and convicted of securities fraud in that case and jailed for two years.)

(Srinath Reddy has turned out to be much more than what I thought of him all along, i.e. somebody who rose primarily by hitching his wagon to 'star' Rajat Gupta.

I learnt recently that he is the son of K.V. Raghunatha Reddy, a Congress politician (1924-2002) who was minister in Indira Gandhi government, served three terms as member of Rajya Sabha, and served in the 1990s as Governor of Tripura, West Bengal, and Odisha.

It also turns out that Srinath Reddy was not just doctor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as I had pointed out in my 13 March 2011 article, but also to Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.)

Source One told me that the aforementioned swindle took place when PHFI dealt with middlemen of Dena Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) in transferring money into fixed deposits (FDs).

("Funds were transferred to FDs with mere Reddy's authorization, even though in any well governed organization with checks and balances that would have been the job of a committee of the governing board.")

“Fake FD receipts were issued to PHFI and the money was diverted to the third parties.”

The media reported in August 2014 that “the finance ministry has ordered a forensic audit of Dena Bank and OBC after some of their Mumbai-based branches allegedly misappropriated funds worth Rs 437 crore, mobilized through fixed deposits”.

“The CBI is already looking into the alleged fraud,” said a report by the Hindu-Business Line.

The media gave wide coverage in 2017 to the home ministry’s revoking of PHFI’s licence to receive foreign funds without saying anything about money swindled through FDs at Dena Bank and OBC.

PHFI’s licence to receive foreign funds was revoked, according to media reports, on account of a number of "undesirable activities", including failure to declare over 100 FDs and “having more than one PAN (permanent account number) for opening accounts and FDs” in violation of the law.

I checked on PHFI’s website its annual reports (two of which, for the years 2012-13 and 2013-14, are available) and found large portions blurred and rendered unreadable.

These portions contain information such as sources of funds, application of funds and bank deposits.

It’s notable that despite allowing PHFI to scrounge off public assets worth hundreds of crores, the government continues not to force this racket to submit itself to audit by Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).

(Sources said: "In 12 years of PHFI's existence, the same governing board has continued with small changes.

"Government representatives on the PHFI board don't attend board meetings. The very claim that they are members of the PHFI board is a mystery. PHFI needs to be asked by what authority it is allowed to say that government officials are on its board."

"Lack of accountability has not only run PHFI into ground, but Narayana Murthy and Srinath Reddy and his team have damaged the cause of public health in India."

"They have taken us 15 years back. The betrayal of trust means building a good public health institution in India will now be exceedingly difficult.")

Ensnaring Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute
Continuing with its criminal ways, PHFI manipulated Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) at Trivandrum into wrongly recognizing the former’s dubious ‘Master of Public Health’ (MPH) and PhD programmes.

The SCTIMST has been recognized by the central government as a university and an institute of national importance.

“An entirely corrupt and unlawful arrangement was reached after SCTIMST’s academic committee and governing body repeatedly refused PHFI’s request for affiliation, citing serious problems,” said another source – let’s call her/him Source Two – who contacted me this month (February 2018).

The change of direction came about with new SCTIMST director Asha Kishore taking office on 15 July 2015.

“She brings the matter again in the academic committee (on 31 Oct. 2015) on the basis of a letter (dated 05 Oct. 2015) from PHFI’s Srinath Reddy re-seeking “strategic partnership” and a discreetly encouraging email from Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology (DST),” said Source Two who has long worked for SCTIMST.

(Making a pitch for recognition of PHFI’s courses by DST Secretary Ashutosh Sharma is another illustration of how the impostors’ club has honeycombed the government, so that it’s hard to say who a babu works for. 

In addition to being the top bureaucrat at DST, which happens to be the department supervising SCTIMST, Sharma also sits on PHFI’s general body! 

No point looking for conflict of interest here! Rather appreciate the sublime convenience of imposture, like the numinosity of a many-faced god!)

(Within days of publication of this article and coverage of PHFI-SCTIMST deal by Open magazine, Deccan Herald, The News Minute, and other media outlets, including the dubious role played by DST Secretary Ashutosh Sharma, PHFI quietly dropped Sharma from its general body!

PHFI website showed that Sharma was dropped from general body on 01 March 2018.

Neither PHFI, nor Sharma, nor the government is answering the question posed by me and other journalists as to whether Sharma's removal from PHFI general body is an admission of wrongdoing exposed by the media.

PHFI, Sharma, and the government are also silent as to who authorized DST Secretary's membership of PHFI general body in the first place.

Where's the order that allowed him to be on PHFI board and start using his DST secretaryship as a hired agency of this impostors' club?

It's almost certain that PHFI approached Sharma in order to use him for striking the illegal deal with SCTIMST and 'hired' him on its board in "private capacity".

Mohit Abraham, a legal counsel of PHFI, explained this "private capacity" membership of PHFI to Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi in 2012 in a hearing that I attended on behalf of the RTI applicant, saying: "Montek Singh Ahluwalia is on PHFI board not as deputy chair of Planning Commission, but as Montek Singh Ahluwalia."

Needless to say it shocked the Information Commissioner Gandhi who observed that this "private capacity" business could be nothing but a "slur" on the integrity of a public servant.

Read the CIC's observation in his order dated 14 Feb. 2012, whose Web-link is pasted at No. 3 in this article's references.

I checked PHFI's rules and regulations to learn that DST Secretary's post is not listed among those government posts that get membership of PHFI general body in "ex officio" capacity -- even though there is no evidence of any government authorization for even the 'ex officio'  membership of PHFI general body.

That means DST Secretary Ashutosh Sharma was in PHFI general body in "private capacity" -- a clear case of corruption and abuse of public office.)

“The matter was smuggled into the academic committee as an out of agenda item without a word of justification. So Asha Kishore (SCTIMST director) managed to circumvent the requirement to circulate an item at least seven days before the meeting,” said Source Two.

“The SCTIMST’s academic committee then accepts PHFI’s request on the basis of falsehoods that are uttered in the meeting, such as the statement that ‘PHFI is already partner for some of SCTIMST’s projects’. I drew a blank when I asked SCTIMST for documents that would support that statement,” Source Two said.

Subsequently, the SCTIMST governing body (chaired by former Union Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar), which had earlier taken on board serious problems in affiliating PHFI, accepts the recommendation without discussion and with a single, clumsily scribbled sentence that neither cites the course title nor names the PHFI institute to be granted the favour.

“It’s transparent that the match was fixed,” said Source Two.

“Srinath Reddy’s letter says he spoke with K.R. Thankappan, who headed SCTIMST’s public health school and favoured the affiliation. Asha Kishore tables a ‘note’ from Thankappan supporting affiliation and allows V. Ramankutty (of the same school) to make false statements like ‘PHFI is already partner for some of SCTIMST’s projects’.”

The inclusion of PhD programme in the arrangement that SCTIMST and PHFI entered into on 28 December 2015 is no less than daylight robbery, considering that PhD was not only not discussed in the academic committee meeting, it was not even mentioned in the letter that Srinath Reddy the crook wrote on 05 October 2015 to SCTIMST director Asha Kishore.

That’s not all.

The SCTIMST accommodated PHFI by changing eligibility conditions for MPH, allowing engineering, management and law graduates also to apply for the course.

(This change was also effected quite dubiously. While there is an SCTIMST notification of 02 Sep. 2016, citing a decision made by the academic committee and endorsed by the governing body, which adds engineering graduates to the candidates eligible to be admitted to MPH, there is nothing in the public domain that accounts for the inclusion of management and law graduates.)

Earlier, the SCTIMST allowed into its MPH course people with qualifications in medicine and allied sciences, or at most those holding post graduate degrees in social sciences or nutrition.

In fact, a Gazette of India notification of 22 Dec. 2011 deems SCTIMST’s MPH to be a “medical degree awarded to those persons holding recognized medical qualifications under the Medical Council of India Act, 1956”.

So the change made to accommodate PHFI goes against this gazette notification.

“It’s clear that change in eligibility conditions was made to help PHFI bag candidates and make money. PHFI has also been allowed a much greater intake of students and to charge much higher tuition fees,” Source Two told me.

While SCTIMST admits 25 students in its MPH course, PHFI has been allowed to admit 50; as against the former charging tuition fee of Rs 1.10 lakh for whole of the two year course the latter has been allowed to charge Rs 1.80 lakh per year.

After entering the arrangement with PHFI on 28 December 2015, the SCTIMST also relaxed the maximum period in which a student can complete the MPH course from two to three years (and to four years in ‘extraordinary circumstances’ with director’s approval).

There are more signs of a fixed match, such as PHFI’s citing of engineering graduates (as also management and law graduates) among those who are eligible to apply for the MPH course, in a press release issued on 29 January 2016 – long before SCTIMST’s academic committee took a decision to that effect.

The SCTIMST academic committee took a decision to add engineering graduates to the candidates eligible to take the MPH course only on 05 April 2016 (with the governing body endorsing it in July 2016 and the institute notifying the decision in September 2016).

“A complaint against the PHFI-SCTIMST deal was filed in Sep. 2017 with the Lokayukta-Kerala (case No. C/1009/2017) and another complaint has been sent to the CBI. The Kochi branch of the CBI has already been conducting a preliminary inquiry into this matter,” Source Two told me.

That PHFI is a parasitical body created and propped up by suborning government and misappropriating public money is illustrated by a letter dated 10 Jan. 2017 that PHFI’s Sanjay Zodpey wrote to the mission director of National Health Mission-Madhya Pradesh, begging for “few candidates” to be nominated for the MPH course – which won’t be worth anything without a government institute like SCTIMST legitimizing it.

So the impostors’ club faking private-sector competence and efficiency appropriates government’s resources and then begs the same government for being allowed to provide a paid service to the government!

That’s how Manmohan Singh's Public Health Fraud of India (PHFI) has been playing out for the last 12 years!

A law unto itself
To have a perspective on the two scams described above, bear in mind that PHFI was designed as a scheme that would allow its beneficiaries to enjoy power and privilege without any public accountability, as I explained earlier in my articles here, here (four-part series in Moneylife), and here.

(I wrote another important article in Oct.2012 which explains how PHFI is an elaborate fraud enacted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his ministers, and why Manmohan should be prosecuted for that.

Manmohan and his ministers used terms like 'Public-Private Partnership' or ‘PPP’ and ‘autonomous PPP’ to hoodwink the public, the Parliament, and a parliamentary committee about PHFI’s formation, identity, privileges, area of work and influence.)

It is accountable to no one except fraudsters like Bill Gates, N.R. Narayana Murthy and Harpal Singh (of Fortis Healthcare) who use it as a convenient handle on governments in the centre and the states to promote their private interests.

I had shown in my articles that PHFI is neither a ‘public-private partnership (PPP)’ in any formal meaning that the government attaches to that descriptor nor an ‘autonomous body’ under any ministry (nor any recognized hybrid of a ‘PPP’ and an ‘autonomous body’), as the Manmohan Singh government falsely and repeatedly claimed and as this impostors’ club continues to suggest even today.

It’s no surprise that there is no one to take responsibility for the actions of PHFI. Nor is there anyone who will ensure that it faces the consequences of its actions.

So PHFI has been a law unto itself. Over 12 years of its existence, it has been perverting with impunity the norms and processes of the central and state governments and public and private entities that it entraps in corrupt deals.

I believe rackets like PHFI came out of some kind of ‘elite consensus’ or ‘elite connivance’ in India, which means all those in power, whichever political party they belong to, are together in it, even though their stakes may vary --- be it Manmohan Singh of Congress or Narendra Modi of BJP or Naveen Patnaik of Biju Janata Dal (BJD), or even the so called ‘Left’ which has had no problem with it.

So Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “launched”, public-funded, and legitimized this fraud in 2006.

His party colleague Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy gave PHFI land for setting up its ‘public health school’ in Andhra Pradesh, as did Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat, and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Odisha.

It has been reported that Gujarat government (post-Narendra Modi) also legislated PHFI’s public health school in Gandhinagar into acquiring ‘university’ status.

While I investigated PHFI back in 2012, I had also learnt that the close family of a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) politician, who has long been the most prominent face of his party in Delhi, might have benefited from setting up PHFI’s public health school in Bhubaneswar – in the land deal, as far as I can remember.

(I understand that this politician's wife is the managing director of a company in which Rajat Gupta’s private equity firm New Silk Route Partners had invested.)

The ‘elite consensus’ has meant that the entire ‘establishment’ (by which I mean people with power – executive, legislative, judicial and media) has ignored this elephant in the room.

It also helps explain why government led by Narendra Modi has not shut down the racket that his predecessor Manmohan Singh set up.

PHFI case also shows that mass ‘media’ organizations are nothing but constituents of a glorified PR/propaganda system, affecting stupid ‘ideologies’ and showing pernicious selectivity in purveying news and commentary.

A self-professed ‘journalism-of-courage’ rag like the Indian Express, for example, has reported about PHFI right from 2006, helping this entity acquire legitimacy, but never asked the basic question: If PHFI claims that it’s a ‘public-private partnership’ (or ‘public-private initiative’) then who is the public authority and who are the private parties in this relationship and where is the agreement that they signed between themselves?

Has anyone seen that agreement? What is written in it? What is its scope and duration? What are the things that the parties to it are supposed to do? And who is responsible for ensuring that the parties adhere to the agreement?

It’s funny to see that in reporting on revocation of PHFI’s FCRA licence, the Indian Express and other rags portrayed PHFI as an “NGO” being victimized by the Narendra Modi government – (presumably in order to feed their favoured narrative that this government has engendered a riot of “right wing” fascism in the country) – but refrained from digging into the alleged hiding of over 100 fixed deposits by PHFI.

A number of people may be liable for the Public Health Fraud of India (PHFI), but I believe if ever the process of accountability starts, four individuals who must first be prosecuted for setting up this racket, in that order, are: Manmohan Singh, Rajat Gupta, K. Srinath Reddy, and Bill Gates.
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The following Web links have been used in this post in their order of occurrence.

1. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-economy/PM-launches-Public-Health-Foundation/article20203479.ece

2. http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/phfi-gets-rolling-with-grants-from-govt-gates-/9886/

3. http://ciconline.nic.in/cic_decisions/CIC_SG_C_2011_001273_17356_M_76524.pdf

4. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Mumbai-economic-offences-wing-files-four-chargesheets-in-fraud-cases/articleshow/41962416.cms?from=mdr

5. http://kbforyou.blogspot.in/2012/09/fraud-at-phfi-and-role-of-chief.html

6. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/markets/rajat-gupta-gets-2-years-in-jail-for-insider-trading/article23084253.ece

7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._V._Raghunatha_Reddy

8. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/money-and-banking/Finance-Ministry-orders-forensic-audit-on-Dena-Bank-OBC-in-Rs-437-cr-fraud/article20848451.ece

9. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/mha-order-revoking-license-of-phfi-lists-7-undesirable-activities/articleshow/58294627.cms

10. https://phfi.org/about-us/annual-reports

11. http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/education/a-course-and-a-correction

12. http://kbforyou.blogspot.in/2011/03/manmohan-singhs-public-private.html

13. https://www.moneylife.in/article/will-phfi-be-any-different-under-narayana-murthy/18337.html

14. http://kbforyou.blogspot.in/2012/09/with-phfi-falsification-is-truth.html

15. http://kbforyou.blogspot.in/2014/03/public-health-fraud-of-india-heres-why.html

16. http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelcontent.aspx?relid=16832

17. http://naveenpatnaik.com/news/Indian-Institute-of-Public-Health-to-come-up-in-Orissa-at-investment-of-Rs-140-crore/170.html

18. http://www.expressbpd.com/healthcare/cover-story-healthcare/iiph-gandhinagar-has-become-the-first-public-health-university-via-gujarat-state-act-passed-in-2015/380717/

19. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/govt-cancels-fcra-licence-of-phfi-top-public-health-ngo-foreign-funds-4620326/

religious conversions -swaraj Jagannathan

If you are a Hindu looking for a New Year resolution for 2020, here’s one. Ditch bad ideas that hold Hinduism back. One bad idea to give up is to keep demanding a ban on religious conversions in the hope that it will stop the Hindu demographic decline in India. It won’t. If you are willing to give up this bad idea, you must necessarily adopt a corollary as your guiding principle: exhort non-Hindus to become Hindus. Hinduism must become a missionary religion once again to regain its vitality.

Before we come to the hows and whys of these two related propositions, let us understand the general idea underlying it all: nature abhors a steady state. The universe is always expanding or contracting somewhere. Life is about birthing more cells in the body than killing them. A business that intends to survive has to grow customers or write its own epitaph in slow motion. Political parties must either grow or fall apart. A political party that is satisfied with the status quo will ultimately destroy its future. This was the reality that forced the Shiv Sena to break with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra.

Ideas are the same. If they are not developed, nurtured and grown continuously, they will shrink and die. Religions are essentially ideas with physical, emotional and psychic dimensions. If they do not seek to expand, they will shrivel, even if this trend is not clearly visible in one’s own lifetime. But when it comes to a tipping point, religions may die all of a sudden. If Hinduism wants to escape this dismal fate at some future date, it has to act now to start growing.

Let’s also understand why bans on religious conversions are not the answer to Hinduism’s steady demographic decline in India. There are already religious conversion bans in several states, but none of them has managed to stem the decline of people professing Hindu faiths.

China frowns on many official religions, including Christianity. But underground Christians are ballooning, and, by some estimates, China could well overtake the US as the world’s largest Christian nation by 2030. The US is the world’s largest Christian nation currently with around 250 million professing the faith (as of the middle of this decade).

Christianity is in decline in the US (not to speak of Europe), as more and more people have stopped practising it. A quarter of US adults now report that they follow no religion. This decline of Christianity in the West is what is driving a huge push for conversions in blue ocean countries like India.

It is also the reason why the Pope does not meet the Dalai Lama, because the Vatican wants some say in how bishops are appointed in China, a new growth area for the faith. Christians understand that if they do not grow their numbers, the faith will collapse into irrelevance. They are willing to deal with the devil (ie, communist China) to grow.

Take another ban that hasn’t worked: cow slaughter. Some 20 states ban cow slaughter, but cow smuggling and slaughter continue undeterred, often causing violence — even deaths — between cow smugglers and gau rakshaks. With a national cattle population of over 192 million, most of them female (source: 20th Livestock Census), it is almost impossible to police cattle movements or prevent slaughter.

If this is the case with an animal which needs humans to move them around for slaughter, how successful can we be in monitoring religious conversions, when a person may convert without changing his name or even within the confines of his home? The only way to deter religious conversions is through intrusive policing, which no free society can allow. Even in a highly policed society (China, etc) the state cannot stop you from believing what you want to believe quietly.

So, while there may be a case for banning foreign contributions that aid religious conversions, banning conversions as such will be counter-productive for Hindus.

This leaves developing a missionary mindset as the best possible way to regenerate Hinduism.

Hindus who claim that Hinduism is not a converting faith are probably wrong, for Hinduism could not have grown to dominate the whole of the Indian sub-continent without enough missionaries seeing it as a worthwhile idea, fit enough to practice, profess and propagate.

Consider Adi Shankaracharya. Pavan Varma, in his book on Adi Shankara, calls him ‘Hinduism’s foremost thinker’, but the first Shankaracharya was not just a thinker, but a doer and missionary. Why else would he go around the country to debate rival ideas and set up four mutts in his short, 32-year lifetime to propagate Advaita?

If Hinduism had no missionaries, the ideas embedded in it would not have spread to south-east Asia at all, where even an Muslim-majority country like Indonesia celebrates its version of the Ramayana.

But the real reason why Hinduism must become a missionary religion again is that expansion and conversion strategies force you to think through your ideas, dogmas, institutions, resources and strategies afresh. If Hindus do not build institutions, if they do not fund them and make their institutions larger than individuals, if they do not break down their faith into byte-sized ideas that the masses can easily consume, and if those ideas do not have an economic dimension which provides an incentive to convert, it cannot really survive except in niche areas confined to some parts of the world.

Currently, many Hindus make a virtue of laziness and foolishness by making the following statements about themselves. I have given the counter-arguments and question the hollowness of these arguments.

(1) We have survived the last 1,000 years, so we will survive the next 1,000 too. Buddhism too was a major religion — if not the dominant one — in India for centuries. How did it suddenly disappear and allow Hinduism to become the dominant faith if Hinduism did not strengthen itself and spread its ideas again?

In the 1940s, South Korea was just two per cent Christian. In 2014, it was more than 30 per cent Christian — a 15-fold growth over three generations. But suddenly, Christianity’s growth has peaked, as the young have stopped attending church. Religions can grow or shrink all of a sudden when they meet, or stop meeting, the expectations of the people. When religions stop being “cool” or inspirational or digmatic, they fade.

Hinduism, too, could decline fast if it does not study demographic trends and fails to understand what keeps people loyal or disloyal to it. Christianity is growing in India because it has invested time and effort to understand what people want from faith.

If Hindus want to stop their demographic contraction, they have to study the weaknesses and strengths of Christianity and Islam, and create winning strategies by adopting new strengths and attacking their opponents’ weaknesses. A commitment to conversion strategies automatically forces you to think along these lines. A ban on conversion means allows you to relax and go to sleep — thus enabling our enemies to gain as we slumber.

(2) We give all people the freedom to follow their own ideas on faith, which means we are open and liberal. It is one thing to be open, another to be lazy and dismissive of the challenges facing the Hindu identity. Huge Muslim populations are growing in Western UP, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, and coastal Karnataka around Mangalore, and Christianity is spreading its wings all over southern and tribal India, including the North-East. Hinduism is already in retreat in these areas.

The only way to overcome this decline is by developing a commitment to grow through conversions. A religion that does not define what it offers to potential converts will not find new adherents. Existing ones may not leave due to inertia, but the young will flee.

Ask yourself: if anyone can claim to be a Hindu on his own terms without defining his relationship with dharma, why bother becoming a Hindu at all?

But there is another point to make as well. While it is good that Hinduism can be relatively free of dogma, it does not follow that you must not have your own set of fundamental values and propositions to offer. If Hinduism is about “anything goes” there is no need for anyong to adopt it. It carries no clearly defined value proposition for anybody.

If Hinduism remains a do-it-yourself religion, even a Shashi Tharoor can suddenly write a book on “The Hindu Way” and no Hindu will be able to say “bollocks”. He can define Hinduism in a way which can be self-defeating. It is good that Hinduism allows for a fair amount of customisation of beliefs and practices, but if it does not develop a core, it will become an empty shell. It will be eviscerated from within.

(3) All religions are the same so what’s the problem if a few Hindus convert to other religions? This is the kind of nonsense that we must stop peddling. All religions are not the same, and never will be, even if some points are common to them. If all religions are the same, why do even Hindus convert to Christianity or Islam or even Buddhism? Why did Babasaheb Ambedkar make a huge point by converting to Buddhism? If Hinduism cannot make itself relevant to those who want to leave it, it will disappear in due course.

India’s 2021 census will indicate a further decline in HIndu populations across almost the whole of India, and a rise in Muslim demography. Christian growth may be concealed as many do not openly declare their new faith for fear of losing job reservation benefits. The Hindu decline is happening because lazy Hindus want to avoid commitment by claiming “all religions are the same”, thus providing the intellectual justification for inaction and defeat. A belief in ‘Dilli door ast’ is never a winning strategy.

(4) Hinduism will not remain Hinduism if it becomes Hindutva. I define Hindutva as either political Hinduism, or an attempt to build a layer of unity among all Hindu sects and denominations. While it is true that any attempt to build unifying ideas into Hinduism will reduce some diversities, our real problem is not diversity, but the glorification of disunity. Any religion that wants to survive has to build layers of unity where the diverse units can fight for their common interests, even while celebrating their differences.

Consider the case of Sikhism. The first nine Gurus were spreading the faith through reform and commitment. The ninth Guru, Tegh Bahadur, even offered his head for dharma, and the Mughal state happily took it. But offering one’s head to one’s enemies does not enable you to win the war for dharma. Guru Tegh Bahadur’s sacrifice - one of the greatest ever - was clearly not enough to tackle the challenge of Islam in the north-west of India. It was the 10th Guru, Govind Singh, who gave Sikhism its final form and fundamentals — drawing from both Hinduism and Islam — from where the faith could not only withstand the onslaught of Islam, but take the fight to it.

Did Sikhism change due to this? Yes. Could Sikhism have survived without this change? We can’t say. But one thing is clear: if you choose to stand up and fight, you change. If you don’t change, you lose. You are then forced to change on terms set by the victors. What should one choose: changing ourselves to control our destinies, or be forced to change by those who could not care less about your faith or your heritage?

(5) Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (The world is one family). This is a load of bull. The world has never been one family, and even a world run by only one religion will never be one family. The Kauravas and Pandavas were essentially one family but they went to war for their share of the patrimony. Dharma luckily won, but it would not have if Arjuna’s weakness (he too believed in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam) had not been overcome by Sri Krishna’s advice to fight for dharma, as enunciated in the Gita.

Hinduism’s rivals in India, Christianity and Islam, also believe in their own brand of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam — the only difference being that it has to be under the banner of Jesus or Allah. But neither Christianity nor Islam has ended wars between kingdoms and societies professing the same faith, nor has Hinduism done so. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is a slogan of goodwill, not strategy. It is okay to practice family feelings when the person concerned behaves like family, not when he is planning to rob you and leave you by the wayside after sticking a knife into you.

The only way to make the world one family is for each unit of this family to be strong enough to deter the other, so that peace reigns among religions and peoples. When all religions realise that they cannot rule the world on their own terms, they will learn to work towards peace and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. The only guarantee of peace is effective armed deterrence.

To achieve Vasudhaiva Kutumbakan, Hinduism has to arm itself by becoming a missionary religion once again. As long as it stays disarmed by refusing to convert, the two desert cults that became world religions by adopting conversion (Evangelism and Dawa) as their guiding themes, will destroy it.

PS: The movement to free temples from government control makes sense only if you plan to use temple resources for proselytisation and expansion of the faith. If you only want to pray to the deity, why do you want to run the temple anyway? Maybe the government can run it just as well?

Jagannathan is Editorial Director, Swarajya. He tweets at @TheJaggi

Hinduism – Sure It Is A Religion

by skanda987@gmail.com

Hinduism – Sure It Is A Religion

It does not help Vedics when they say Vedic dharma (Hinduism, Vedic dharma, varna-aashram dharma, whatever you call it, whose root is the Veda and Bhagavad Gita) is not a religion. Why, because:

1. The world has a few religions, and Hinduism can become an outcast on the matter or religions.
2. All constitutions of the world countries, have laws addressing “religion”, and it does not serve Vedic interest if a constitution cannot address Hinduism as a religion.
3. Vedic is universal religion for mankind because any human of any race, country, time, or skin color, or back ground, can advance spiritually by living per dharma (doing a chosen yog practice in life.) Spiritual advancement is something that cannot take away anyone’s freedom, life, property, women, land, dignity or honor, or freedom of movement. Also, all Vedic dharma practice are eco-friendly. Any mal-practice of dharma must be stopped.
4. Every religion influences how one lives; so, it can be argues that every religion is provides a way of life. E.g. Xian way of life is different than that of Hindus or Muslims. So, Hindu also is a religion, but is universal.
5. Below are dictionary’s definitions of the word “religion,” and Hinduism or the Vedic dharma meets those definitions.

• The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.
• A particular system of faith and worship.
• A set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
• A specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects.
• Something one believes in and follows devotedly
• “There are many religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.” – Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion

Therefore, it is my prayer that no Hindu says “Hinduism is not a religion.”

Yes, it is not exclusive, history-centric or dogmatic like Islam, Xianity and Judaism are; but that is because they are not universal and Vedic dharma is universal. A short article at below link lists all universal criteria for judging a religion universal.

I welcome your disagreement on any point, if there is; and also, if I missed any universal criteria that I should include in the article.

More and more Hindus and others understand this the better for the Hindus and Hindustan.

In this info age people have less time; and poor people’s all time goes in earning a living. So, for all the people Bhagavad Gita is sufficient to know what is Vedic dharma. After knowing it, people should strive to practice a chosen yog to advance spiritually. Movies or Ramayan, Mahabharat, and the Vedic saints, could help a lot for knowing what dharma is, God is, etc.

Please share with others the points you agree; and I will be glad to clarify further any point if it seems not agreeable. Also, to work together for a higher cause it is not necessary to have complete agreements on every points to the lowest detail. So, no problem if some disagreement remains.

Religions and Religious Freedom By Suresh Vyas, Vedic Preacher Skanda987@gmail.com 

At this time the world has a small number of these major religions are: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Vedic (meaning Hindu or Sanaatan Dharma), and Buddhism. The followers of no religion, except the Vedic, say that all religions are same.4,5,6 [ (Most Vedics say “all religions are same” out of misunderstanding of a line in the Vedas that says all paths lead to the same god.1,2 They forget that when the Vedas said it (in the beginning of creation3 ) there was only one religion – the Vedic dharma - in the world. This Vedic dharma gives a number of yogas – processes of realizing god or going to god and experience bliss. All these Vedic paths lead to the same god. Therefore, the words “all paths” of the Vedas do not include Islam and Christianity.] When one understands that all religions are different, then one may ask – which religion is good, or better, or best? This question immediately raises another question – how you figure if a religion is better than another religion? Here is how you could figure it: A religion is better than another religion when: 1. It gives more freedom of thought, speech and action. 7 a. Gives freedom to create or display 2D or 3D, even 4D visual art to express one’s thoughts or messages. That is, one can draw anything or create idols or statues even for god or goddess b. Gives freedom to create or play music c. Gives freedom to assemble and communicate or act d. Gives freedom to say “No” e. Gives freedom to defend self, family, or any legal group or territory one belongs to 2. It is tolerant of all the tolerant religions because tolerating the intolerant is encouraging intolerance. 7 3. Its practice does not take away, or curtail, or limit the freedom, lives, lands, or property, pursuit for happiness, or dignity and honor of the followers of other tolerant religions. 7 4. Its practice is eco-friendly and harmonious with nature. 7 5. It does not encourage animal killings for fun. 8 6. Its practice makes one compassionate to other living beings. 9 7. People accept it by free choice without any force, pressure or enticement for conversion. 7 8. Its followers or preachers preach only to those who have friendly and non-envious interest to know it. 7 9. It is more scientific or logical than another religion. 7 2 10. It does not say, “Kill those who quit this religion.” 7 11. It does not say, “Women cannot go to heaven.” 7 12. Its place of prayer or religious activity is open to all to visit who feel friendly and nonenvious to the religion.7 13. It does not say one race or sex is superior to another. 7 14. It does not encourage slavery, sex out of marriage, gambling, or intoxication.10 15. It is for all the humans of all the time. It is not exclusive for a particular race, or country or group. 7 16. Its practice helps in achieving peace at any level from personal to national to global level. It has more potential for achieving world peace.7 17. It considers virtue the following: a. Abstain sex while one is a student or unmarried adult b. No sex relation out of marriage c. No sex if no children are wanted d. Abstain non-vegetarian foods e. Control anger and greed f. Protection of women and children of society g. Abstain from alcohol or drugs h. Not do gambling i. No hunting or killing for fun j. Not plundering or spoiling village, city, state or national resources k. Use violence, as the last resort, against anti-socials or anti-nationals So, if you use the above criteria to judge if a religion is better than another religion, you will find that some religions are not good, and at least one is really worst or barbaric. You have to know about a religion only by its Book, and/or from its well-recognized authorities, and staunch followers. Every religion has more or less followers who do not know their own religion correctly, or they malpractice it. A religion is what is stated in its authorized Book. Now, most democratic counties at this time (except Hamas perhaps) give freedom of religion. They say something like this: “Anyone can follow any religion. All religions are legal. Government does not prefer or favor one religion over another.” This law basically says that you as a citizen could follow any religion, good or bad; and you are free to quit a religion and follow another religion as well any time. Now think. Is it rational, or safe, to say that you living in a democratic country could follow a religion that says: “Any democratic government is illegal and must be replaced; or, you kill the followers of other religions, and doing so you will go heaven; or, accept this religion, or else you will go to hell or will be killed; or, no woman could go out of home without fully covering her body from head to toe; or, no woman could go to schools, etc.? It certainly is not rational. Therefore, the constitution or the law needs to be changed to say that any intolerant religion is illegal. If you are living in a democracy, and not following a barbaric religion, and your 3 country’s majority people are not following a barbaric religion, then please tell the majority to unite and change the law or constitution as soon as possible before a barbaric religion could take over your country or take away your freedom. No democratic constitution should allow a barbaric and intolerant or anti-democracy religion7 4 Bibliography or Notes 1. “They have called him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, and the divine fine-winged Garuda; They speak of Indra, Yama, Matrarisvan: the One Being sages call by many names.” - Rig Veda 1.164.46 2. “As all surrender unto Me, I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Prtha.” – Bhagavad Gita 4.11 3. “The Blessed Lord said: I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god Vivasvan, and Vivasvan instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Iksvaku.” -Bhagabad Gita 4.1 4. “...when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death." A non-Israelite who comes too close to the Jewish temple is to be executed.” - Old Testament 1:51 5. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils..." Beliefs of other religions are described as coming from evil spirits and devils.” -Timothy 4:1 6. “Allah forgiveth not that partners should be set up with Him; but He forgiveth anything else, to whom He pleaseth; to set up partners with Allah is to devise a sin most heinous indeed.” - Koran 004.048 YUSUF ALI 7. This is self evident. A sane and sober person with rational mind would readily agree to it. 8. God has purpose in creating animals; animals are part or the eco system; the world existed before we were born, and will exist after we die. Out existence here is temporary. So, if we cannot create animals, we should not kill them just for fun. – Suresh Vyas 9. Compassion is life supporting feeling than cruelty. Therefore, it ought to be more desirable than cruelty or neutrality. - - Gambling does not produce any useful service or product to the society. Intoxication makes one just feel good, but does not solve any real problem; and it makes on addicted. An intoxicated person hardly does any good to others or the self. -Suresh Vyas

Suresh Vyas​ wites:
The Western world, who has deliberately chosen to repeatedly bang the Vedic dharma or Hindus on the so called caste system, need to be informed by the Vedic dharma authorities, Gurus, that the so called caste system is nothing but malpractice, if it still exists, of varna-aashram dharma that defines one’s varna (social class) by one’s guna (qualities) and karma (one’s way of earning living). In Bhagavad Gita Bhagavaan Krishna says:

“catur-varnyam maya srstam
guna-karma-vibhagasah
tasya kartaram api mam
viddhy akartaram avyayam” Gita 4-13

Translation by Bhakti-vedanta Swami Prabhupada:
“According to the three modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society were created by Me. And, although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the non-doer, being unchangeable.” – Gita 4-13

Srimad Bhagavatam verse 8-5-41 also says that the four varnas are created from the body of God.

Srimad Bhagavata verses 7-11-21 to 7-11-14 also describe the qualities of the four varnas.

Unfortunately, many Hindus defined one’s varna by birth, and that is sinful malpractice of dharma.

By the current law it is illegal to discriminate or oppress so called lower caste persons.
The Hindus need to be pressed (by gov’t and gurus) to live per dharma and not malpractice it.

It is sinful to hate (or not touch) any varna by any other varna per the vedic dharma.

Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita verse 18-45:
“sve sve karmany abhiratah
samsiddhim labhate narah
sva-karma-niratah siddhim
yatha vindati tac chrnu”

“By following his qualities of work, every man can become perfect. Now please hear from Me how this can be done.”

By context “sva-karma” is karma according to one’s varna.
Thus, each varna is equally eligible to advance spiritually bu doing one’s varna duties per dharma as described in the verses following the above verse.

Additionally, There is a mantra in Purush Suukta that says that bramhamas are born from the head of Virat (the God), kshatriya from Virat’s arms, vaishyas from Virat’s belly, and shudras from Virat’s legs.
Being so, all the four varnas are healthy parts of Virat, or the Vedic society. Srimad Bhagavat verse 2-5-37 also says this. Each part has its important function and each part supports the other parts. There is no question of head or arms hating or misusing legs.

Vedic scriptures also say that one is considered a brahmana, kshatriya, or vaishya if one undergoes sixteen Vedic sanskaras faithfully in one’s family line. Those who do not undergo these sanskaras are called shudras. Therefore, any so called lower caste person can become any other class (varna) by one’s guna and karma or by undergoing the sixteen Vedic sanakar vidhis. Gov’t is doing dis-service to the so called lower class by creating quotas (unqualified free favor) for them. To get quota benefits the lower class chooses to remain in lower class. Per dharma one is free to develop one’s guna and karma of any other class.

Please share this information with all your contacts. Thanks.

jai sri krishna!

​​Suresh Vyas
Vedic preacher and priest