Reports that Islamist preacher Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation donated Rs. 50 lakh to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust in 2011 generated political heat on Saturday, with the BJP fielding Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to take the Congress head-on.
“The money was given in 2011, when the Congress was in government. Sonia Gandhi chairs the institution. Dr. Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, P. Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Vadra were members,” Mr. Prasad said. “Do they maintain caution in receiving donations or not?”
While answering a question in Parliament in December 2012, the then Information and Broadcasting Minister, Manish Tewari, said the government had identified 24 illegal TV channels whose contents were not conducive to the security environment, including Zakir Naik’s Peace TV. “Why wasn’t the money returned in 2012,” Mr. Prasad asked. He wondered if it was a “bribe” to protect the preacher’s “illegal and anti-national activities”.
Home Ministry sources said “no illegality” had been found in the donation. The Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) is registered under the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010, which regulates donation from one FCRA-registered NGO to another.
Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) is an FCRA-registered NGO and in 2011, there was no inquiry against it. It was on August 8 this year that the Home Ministry sent an inspection notice to Naik’s NGO after his name surfaced during the attack on a Dhaka cafe on July 1. At least two of the Bangladesh terrorists used to follow the speeches of Naik.
After the incident, the RGCT returned the amount. “It is correct that IRF donated Rs. 50 lakh to RGCT in 2011. In July this year, they returned it. It was donated from one FCRA-registered NGO to another, no anomaly in this,” said IRF spokesperson Arif Malik.
It’s slander: Congress
The Congress accused the government of “running its usual diabolical agenda to slander, malign and defame” the party through lies and selective news plants. “What is utterly shocking is the fact that a Union Cabinet Minister, who has sworn by the Constitution, is asking questions about documents and facts which are in possession of the government and are being leaked by them mischievously,” party’s communication chief Randeep Surjewala said.