A revelation that the Chinese government and its Embassy in India have been funding the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi has opened a new political war in the national capital, with the Congress saying that “the BJP should stop living in 2005” and alleged that the ruling party is adopting “diversionary tactics” to avoid answering questions on the Chinese transgressions in Ladakh.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, “Please stop living in 2005 and start answering questions in 2020.”
The controversy erupted after the BJP raised the issue. “Donations showed results soon after. RGF did not just one but several studies on how a Free Trade Agreement between India and China is desirable and required. Studies argued that India needs the FTA much more than China and should pursue it as part of its efforts to improve bilateral relations,” said Amit Malviya, head of the BJP’s IT cell.
The Congress posed counter questions. “Why is the government mum about Chinese presence in eastern Ladakh area, in the national interest the nation wants to know the answer to these questions instead of diversionary tactics of the present BJP government,” Surjewala asked, adding: “I can ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, is it not true that the only Chief Minister (as Gujarat CM) who visited China 4 times is none less than Prime Minister Modi, the only Prime Minister who visited China five times is Prime Minister Modi, the only Prime Minister who called the Chinese premier three times is Prime Minister Modi.”
As per an RGF annual report accessed by IANS, in 2005-06, the Foundation received a donation from the government of China and the Chinese Embassy as two separate donors. These were listed as donors in the report in the list of general donors. According to some estimates, the donation was to the tune of $2 million between 2004 and 2006 and $9 million between 2006 and 2013.
The chairperson of the RGF’s board of trustees is party interim chief Sonia Gandhi, while its board includes former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, among others.
With agency inputs