TRUST DEFICIT?

The BJP has chosen to raise the issue of Chinese money funding Congress charities when anti-China sentiments are running high

On July 8, the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) set up an inter-ministerial committee to coordinate investigations into alleged violations of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Income Tax Act and Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) by three trusts headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. With a special director of the Enforcement Directorate at its helm, the committee will look into the affairs of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF), the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) and the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust (IGMT). The decision came nearly two weeks after several BJP leaders alleged that the RGF received funds from the Chinese government to promote the interests of that country. The charges came at a time of heightened anti-China sentiment in the wake of the People’s Liberation Army’s transgressions on the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. The timing had political significance as this allegation came as a counter-attack against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s criticism that the Narendra Modi government had ceded Indian territory to China and misled the country’s people on the issue.

In an attempt to underline the RGF’s China connection, the BJP has drawn attention to the trust’s annual reports, according to which the Chinese government and embassy were on its list of donors in 2006 and 2007. While BJP president J.P.