Toxic Links behind the attack on Art of Living?

A deep dive into the forces arrayed against AoL in the NGT points to Toxics Link as a possible entity

By R Singh -

 

May 18, 2017

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Is Toxics Link behind the case against AoL in the NGT?

Since March 2016 I have read with interest numerous media stories about the possibility that The Art of Living’s (AoL) World Cultural Festival (WCF) caused harm to the Yamuna. Given conflicting stories from both sides, I wondered about the truth and was waiting to see what the outcome of the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) hearings would be. However, a recent tweet from Subramanian Swamy, caught me by surprise:

I was intrigued. Why would Swamy allege that the complaint against Art of Living’s WCF was an organized attack on its founder, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a Hindu Guru? I decided to do my own fact finding.

My research into publicly available information on the petition against AoL began with reading the numerous articles and videos on the controversy. My intention was to find answers to the following questions:

• Who are the people who form the consortium of petitioners and what are their backgrounds and links?
• Who is providing funding support for the petition which has involved significant legal expenses which started in December 2015?
• Is the NGT appointed “Expert committee” biased in any way or are its members truly independent of influence from the petitioners or other special interests?

Here are my findings based on information publicly available on the internet. I will let you draw your own conclusions.

The People Involved, Their Backgrounds and links

The Funding Sources

Some notorious foreign funding agencies backing the petitioners against Art of Living that caught my attention are highlighted in the table below:

Toxic Links

• Ford Foundation: considered a funding arm of the CIA for influencing policies and governments of foreign countries. PM Modi has taken legal action against it in the past for political interference through its funding of NGOs in India.
• SIDA: considered a Trojan horse of the west for engineering regime changes.
• Swedish Society for Nature Conservation: known for interfering in environmental issues the developing world through engineered public protests
• Oxfam: known for supporting Evangelical activities in India and other countries.

Links between Petitioners and NGT Expert Committee

The facts and the links that I have unearthed in my research have raised the questions about the neutrality of the NGT Expert Committee. It is possible that there is collusion against AoL and a bias in favor of the petitioners’ nexus.

The NGT had claimed to have appointed a seven-member “independent” Expert Committee” to assess the alleged damage to Yamuna flood plains due to World Culture Festival Event.  However, the public needs to know if this expert committee is truly “independent”.

My research revealed the existence of many relationships between the consortium of petitioners, their lawyer and some of the Expert Committee members. Ravi Agarwal, is Founding Director of Toxics Link, along with Sanjay Parikh, legal representative for the petitioners, is a Board member. Toxics Links appears to be an influential NGO that has close links with the petitioners and the NGT Expert Committee members.   So far, I have identified the following links which leads me to question their ability to be neutral.

Toxic Tree

CONCLUSION

Based on the research presented above, I find Toxics Link, a foreign funded NGO, to have significant links to the petitioner against Art of Living and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. I ask the readers to also consider the following facts about Toxics Link (TL):

• TL Board members have targeted Modi since 2002
• TL Board members have supported Naxalites
• TL Board members have supported terrorists like Afzal Guru
• NGOs run by these petitioners are funded by foreign funding agencies that are known for destabilizing democracies and interfering in India’s policies.
• Toxics Link is aligned with organizations like Sweccha that support evangelical activities in India
• TL Board member is the lawyer fighting against Art of Living

I will let you draw your own conclusions about the significance of these links. The question is this: Can the current NGT Expert Committee be expected to be fair in its handling of the case against the WCF event held by Art of Living and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar?

The next logical point to ponder is WHY Art of Living/Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is at the receiving end given WCF generated a huge PR win for India and showcased India’s soft power and message of fostering peace to entire world. More research needs to be done on this aspect as there is no smoke without fire.

References:

1. http://www.pucl.org/bulletins/2015/PUCLaug2015.pdf, pg. 10
2. https://sabrangindia.in/article/arguments-zakia-jafri-case-implicating-top-netas-cops-and-babus-2002-carnage-conclude
3. http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/31/sardar-sarovar-rehabilitation-supreme-court-to-appoint-high-level-expert-committee/
4. http://www.legallyindia.com/the-bench-and-the-bar/sanjay-parikh-in-massive-win-for-greenpeace-as-delhi-hc-thaws-funds-frozen-by-home-ministry-20150120-5511
5. http://pucl.org/admin/national_council.html
6. http://www.indiaresists.com/pucl-statement-on-hanging-of-afzal-guru/
7. http://yamuna-elbe.org/speakers/manoj-kumar-misra/ (click on the website indicated at end of the post). There is no proper website for “Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan”. Both NGOs do not have a site where public can get information on funding, board, etc.
8. http://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/grants-database/grants all?originatingoffices=%26RegionIds%3D5&page=2&minyear=2007&maxyear=2008
9. http://myvoice.opindia.com/2016/03/ngo-which-questioned-aol-for-yamuna-has-burnt-1-crore-without-doing-any-ground-work/
10. http://swechha.in/#aboutus
11. https://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/irrc_858_ferris.pdf pg 322
12. Oxfam is accused of evangelism pg. 149
13. http://www.sida.se/contentassets/1990c6bb0b354841a851e22c1582b6e4/increased-awareness-and-capacity-to-protect-the-environment-through-indian-ngos—review-of-swedish-support-to-the-centre-for-s_3751.pdf
14. http://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/grants-database/grants all?originatingoffices=%26RegionIds%3D5&page=2&minyear=2007&maxyear=2008
15. https://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/irrc_858_ferris.pdf pg 322
16. http://www.sida.se/contentassets/1990c6bb0b354841a851e22c1582b6e4/increased-awareness-and-capacity-to-protect-the-environment-through-indian-ngos—review-of-swedish-support-to-the-centre-for-s_3751.pdf
17. http://delhigreens.com/2009/11/18/toxics-link-public-lecture-series-screening-of-the-final-tide-at-iic/
18. Prof Brij Gopal is panelist in a conference on India Rivers Week hosted by Toxics Link & Manoj Mishra’s organization Peace Institute Charitable Trust. https://www.internationalrivers.org/sites/default/files/attached-files/proceedings_of_india_rivers_week_2014.pdf
19. Prof C R Babu and Ravi Agarwal (Director of Toxics Link) are part of Tree Authority. http://enews.toxicslink.org/partner-view.php?id=6
20. Yamuna: By Brij Gopal and Manoj Misra at Living rivers, dying rivers series-Part V https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77j6UpN1IwQ (at 0:59 sec)

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.