Union Home Minister Amit Shah took the Congress to task on Tuesday over the China issue, saying the Rajiv Gandhi foundation (RGF) had received Rs 1.35 crore from the Chinese embassy.
Addressing journalists outside Parliament, the minister said that the Lok Sabha proceedings were disrupted by the Congress citing clashes on the border, but the actual reason was that it did not want to hear embarrassing facts about the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) as a question was listed about it during the Question Hour in the House.
“Between 2005 and 2007, the RGF had received Rs 1.35 crore from the Chinese embassy. After following due diligence, the home ministry cancelled the FCRA registration of the RGF,” he said.
Amit Shah alleged that while the Congress claimed that the money from the embassy for the NGO was meant to undertake research on ties between India and China, the country wanted to know if the research covered the issue of land that India lost during the 1962 war.
Recalling that China had raised questions about then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh on October 13, 2009, he asked if the party carried out research on the issue.
The minister asked whether the party also researched issues like incursion of thousands of hectares of land by China, Jawaharlal Nehru “sacrificing” India’s seat in the United Nations Security Council, denial of visa by China to the then Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Dorjee Khandu and issuing of staple visa to residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
Mr Shah also alleged that when the Indian soldiers were fighting the Chinese army at Galwan, someone from the Congress was throwing a dinner for an official of the Chinese embassy.
Launching a scathing attack on the Congress for the way it had handled India-China relations when the party was in power, he asked why work on vital infrastructure projects on the border was stalled in 2012 following a threat from China.
On the border issue, the minister made it clear that the “BJP government will not allow any incursion on land. We will not leave an inch of land. The bravery shown by soldiers is appreciable, they have saved our land”.
Amit Shah also claimed that the Foundation headed by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi received Rs 50 lakh from Zakir Naik, founder of the Islamic Research Foundation, which was banned by the government due to its link with terrorism.
Home Minister Amit Shah has alleged that the Congress has raised the issue of India-China face-off to avoid the question of FCRA violation by Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, an organisation run by the opposition party. Talking to media outside Parliament today, Mr Shah said, the Foundation had received a grant of 1.35 crore rupees from the Chinese Embassy during 2005-2007, which was not appropriate as per the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). He said, the government has cancelled its registration as per the rule. The Minister added that a question was listed in the Lok Sabha about it but the Congress and other opposition parties disrupted the proceedings. Mr. Shah asserted that till the time the Narendra Modi government is in power, no one can capture even an inch of Indian soil.
Meanwhile, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that there was no relation between India-China border face-off and FCRA licence cancellation of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
