Home ministry under secretary Anand Joshi being produced in Patiala House Court in New Delhi on Monday by the the CBI in connection with a corruption case.

NEW DELHI: Anand Joshi, the home ministry officer under arrest for issuing arbirary notices to NGOs under Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA), had secretly contacted a senior Ford Foundation representative here in July 2015 and offered to share minutes of a key home ministry meeting that discussed registration of the US-based donor’s Delhi office under an Indian law.

Ford Foundation chose to ignore the “offer” and later informed the home ministry seniors about it.

Joshi had also tried to harass leading NGOs like Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and India HIV/AIDS Alliance, both recipients of grants from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, by issuing them a standard questionnaire, the first point of an enquiry against an NGO suspected of violating FCRA provisions, without authorisation from his seniors.

According to a senior home ministry official, Joshi made a call to Tuhina Sunder, who works at Ford Foundation’s Lodi Estate office, on July 8, 2015, on the very day a meeting was held in the ministry to deliberate the need for Ford Foundation to register its Indian arm under either FCRA or Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). This was months after the US donor was placed on ‘prior permission’ list for allegedly funding non-FCRA registered and profit-making entities in India.

Only a couple of months ago, Ford Foundation was taken off 'prior permission' list after it complied with the government's request to register its India office under FEMA.

The home ministry source claimed Joshi told the Ford Foundation officer that he knew of the decision taken at the July 8 meeting and could read out its minutes. “He even offered to provide her with an unofficial copy of the minutes if she visited the building where FCRA division is located,” an officer said and claimed that a recording of the telephone conversation is available with the home ministry and would be shared with CBI.

The Ford Foundation representative reportedly contacted by Joshi did not entertain him. The NGO, said a home ministry officer, overlooked the overtures and brought up the matter later in meetings with the home ministry brass.

When contacted, Ford Foundation did not confirm or deny the call between Joshi and Tuhina. In a statement e-mailed to TOI, the US-based donor dismissed a recent allegation by Joshi that he was under pressure to favour Ford for a Rs 250-crore bribe, as “outlandish and untrue”. “No such overture or suggestion has ever been made and the foundation rejects this allegation completely and unequivocally,” it said.

According to sources, Joshi’s modus operandi was to identify the cash-rich NGOs and issue them standard questionnaires under FCRA without clearance from his bosses. Incidentally, he would also issue notices to smaller NGOs so as not to arouse suspicion. The motive was to ride on the general apprehension among the NGOs following the FCRA crackdown on Greepeace India, Ford Foundation, etc, and scare them into “negotiating” a settlement with him.

Some of Joshi’s “victims” included environmentalist Sunita Narain’s CSE, PHFI (which received over Rs 550 crore in foreign funding in the recent years), Indian HIV/AIDS Alliance (with foreign contributions over Rs 165 crore), All Indian Primary Teachers Federation (New Delhi), The Sacred Heart Educational Trust (Kolkata); Southern Health Improvement Samity (West Bengal); Act Now for Harmony & Democracy; Mahabodhi Society of India (Kolkata); Church’s Auxiliary Social Action; Child in Need Institute; Society for Educational & Environmental Development (WB); Label Manufacture Association of India (Maharashtra); and Catholic Bishop of Nalgonda. These NGOs were threatened with an inspection, though no such plans were discussed in the home ministry.

