DNA Edit: Not so charitable - Terror funding has new conduits, but discretion is advisable

A Union Home Ministry report last year came up with some startling findings. Based on Intelligence Bureau inputs, it says that of the nearly 85,000 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country, about 68,000 are registered with the government to receive funds.

The problem is with the remaining  17,000, which are not. The report went on to claim that several NGOs in the country are vulnerable to terror financing and money laundering, suggesting that it was time to introduce self-regulatory steps. It pegged NGO funding, only from foreign agencies, at Rs 11,500 crore. These figures are based on returns filed by the NGOs, but the government is worried that there is not much specification on how this money has been spent.

The balance sheet has a column called ‘miscellaneous’, where the expenditure is indicated. This has raised alarm bells. Some NGOs are registered to receive funds only within India, while there are those which work outside of the ambit of the government. What is particularly disturbing is that many of these outfits have mushroomed in the country’s trouble spots — Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand — where there is also a great influx of foreign funding. While on paper, these NGOs are invariably working for a cause, in reality, they are a front to receive money either for terror or laundering.

Now it appears, NGO financing for terror is truly expanding its footprints. While funding for Kashmiri separatists has traditionally come from outside the country, intelligence agencies say that such monies have now found another conduit — Mumbai. It should be a cause of immense worry that two NGOs and three hawala operators in the city have come under the scanner for their alleged involvement in funnelling money to Kashmiri separatists.

The need for the government to make self-regulation mandatory has finally arrived. It seems that these NGOs have been collecting donations in and around Mumbai, under the guise of zakat (charity prescribed in Islam) and medical expenses for the underprivileged. This money is then funnelled to separatist leaders and other anti-social elements in Kashmir through hawala to create unrest.

Three hawala agents, operating under shell companies, are also being investigated for anti-national activities. These firms, based in Mumbai, also received ‘charitable donations’ from Pakistan, Dubai and Malaysia. Hawala operators are suspected to use the rail route to move funds from Mumbai to Jammu, and from there by road to Kashmir. Such findings have come on the back of the recent arrest of separatists by the NIA.

The situation, by any reckoning, is tricky. While the government needs to identify NGOs which are misusing their position to act as collaborators of anti-national elements, it is important not to paint all of them with the same brush.

There are NGOs which are also doing commendable work for the underprivileged in this country and it would be a sad day if they, too, are put under scrutiny. The government will have to use its discretion so as to not discredit the NGO movement in India that has some impressive credits to its name.