Lagatar24 desk
New Delhi, Oct 23: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has cancelled the license of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) due to the acquisition of an alleged violation of the Foreign Funding Act.
According to Home Ministry sources, the MHA formed an inquiry committee in July 2020. On the basis of its report, a decision has been taken to cancel the license. According to sources, the notice to cancel the license has been sent to the office bearer of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
Notably, former Congress President Sonia Gandhi is the chairperson of RGF and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are among the trustees.
The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation was established in the year 1991 to fulfil the vision of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. According to information available on the foundation’s official website, rgfindia.org, from 1991 to 2009, the foundation has contributed to resolve a number of issues such as health, literacy, science and technology, women and child development, assistance to the disabled, Panchayati raj institutions, natural resource management, and libraries among others.
In June 2020, the BJP accused the foundation of foreign funding. The then Law Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad had claimed that China had funded the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. Prasad had said that there is a law under which no party can take money from abroad without the permission of the government.
He claimed that there is a list of donors for the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation for 2005-06. “In this, the Embassy of China donated – it is clearly written. why did this happen? What was needed? Many industrialists, PSUs are also named in this. Was it not enough that bribes had to be taken from the Chinese Embassy as well.” He claimed that the foundation was funded by Rs 90 lakhs from China.
