Sunday, May 04, 2014

IDRF

IDRF is the Indian Development & Relief Fund, a charitable organization based in the US, run by Dr Vinod and Sarla Prakash, that raises funds for good works in India. 

Back in 2002, the professional leftist brigade in the US, including such people as Dr. Angana Chatterji and Prof. Vinay Lal,  and organizations like SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association) and FOIL (Forum of Indian Leftists) undertook a campaign against "the funding of hatred in India", and their main target was IDRF.

That was the first I heard of IDRF; and at that time, I had considerable sympathy for leftists.

The leftists managed to get the US Department of Justice to investigate IDRF, and to get US corporations, whose Indian employees make donations to IDRF through paycheck deductions, to withhold payments to IDRF.

I did my own finding-out, and IDRF was nothing at all like what the leftists had represented.   That finding marked my break with the leftists. I was also determined that IDRF should not be hurt by the vile campaign against it; and I started making regular contributions, which I have been doing ever since.

IDRF continues, and is featured in a Sunday Magazine article in the Chennai-based "The Hindu" newspaper.   Don't be fooled by the name "The Hindu", it is a leftist publication, and has an editorial policy that seems to emanate from Beijing.   People on Bharat-Rakshak fondly call it "The Chindu".  So while the title of the article in the Hindu is "Payback Time" where the payback is as in people contributing to society,  it is a sweet payback to IDRF, too, that it now features positively in a leftist publication.