The Income Tax Department is conducting raids at the Delhi offices of independent think tank Centre for Policy Research and charity organization Oxfam India; and at Bengaluru-based Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation (IPSMF) that partly funds a number of digital media outlets such as The Caravan, The Print, and Swarajya.
No response has yet been received from any of the organizations regarding the raids
Sources in the tax department told NDTV that the “surveys” are connected to simultaneous action in Haryana, Maharashtra, and Gujarat, among other places, “over funding of more than 20 registered but non-recognized political parties”. News agency PTI said, citing sources, that the action is part of a probe over foreign donations. No official statement is out yet.
Bengaluru-based trust IPSMF funds some organizations known for investigative stories that question the governments of the day.
The most recent cover story in The Caravan — a magazine and portal backed by the Foundation — questioned a probe report that cleared PM Narendra Modi of any role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. The Supreme Court recently praised and relied on that report to reject pleas to further investigate the then chief minister Modi.
The administrator of the IPSMF is columnist TS Ninan, while legal administrators incorporate entertainer Amol Palekar. Among its benefactors are the Premji, Godrej, and Nilekani business families.
Think tank CPR, as well, is known to inspect government strategy with a basic eye. It was once headed by academician Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a conspicuous pundit of the ongoing BJP government. At present, its administering board is led by Meenakshi Gopinath, who was educated at Jawaharlal Nehru College and was head of Woman Shri Slam School in Delhi. Shaped in 1973, CPR records “posing the important inquiries” among its objectives.
Likewise confronting activity is Oxfam India, which is important for a worldwide consortium of NGOs under the Oxfam umbrella. Its site says it “crusades with people in general to request strategy changes from legislatures for making a fair and comprehensive nation as imagined in the Indian Constitution”.
A team of more than 10 officers is inside the CPR office at Chanakyapuri since noon, sources said. The surveys are likely to go on through the night. Staff has not been allowed to leave.
Comments