Compassion International to wind up India operations

The Christian NGO is being forced to shut down its operations in India next week because of “ideological” reasons.

Pramod Dass, the director of Bethesda Charitable Endeavors, one of the 500 Indian partners of Compassion International that will have to shut down operations. Credit Poras Chaudhary for The New York Times

New Delhi:  American Christian NGO Compassion Internationalthat is one of India’s biggest donors closes its operations here after 48 years, informing tens of thousands of children that they will no longer receive meals, medical care or tuition payments.

The New York Times on Mar 8 reported that the NGO is being forced to shut down its operations in India next week because of “ideological” reasons.

“Its (Compassion International’s) executives vehemently deny the government’s allegation that it is funding religious conversions, and say India has given them no opportunity to rebut the accusation.

Instead, they say they found themselves in murky back-channel negotiations with a representative of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),” the NYT report said.

It quoted Compassion International’s chief executive officer Santiago Mellado, saying they had been approached by an RSS activist in Washington D.C., Shekhar Tiwari, who works with a powerful Indian-American lobby group, with a proposal that indicated they were “negotiating with an ideological movement that is fuelling the government.”

According to the allegation carried in the NYT, the proposal forwarded was that the [Indian] government “might view Compassion International more favorably if the charity routed a portion of its $45 million in annual charitable donations away from churches and through non-Christian aid groups, including Hindu ones.”

However the Indian government dismissed the statement by Compassion International, while the RSS distanced itself from the issue.

“We have responded to the report (quoting Compassion International)”, an MEA official told The Hindu on Mar 8, pointing to the MEA statement calling the allegation that an RSS activist in the U.S. had suggested that the Christian NGO re-route some of its funding through the RSS, “totally
extraneous to the law enforcement action.”

Meanwhile, RSS spokesperson Manmohan Vaidya said the “RSS has nothing to do with the allegations levelled and carry out our socio-cultural activities through support from the public rather than the government.”

In March 2016, the Ministry of Home Affairs had put Compassion International on a “prior permission” watchlist, effectively curtailing its ability to bring in funds for NGOs in India, some of which were accused of carrying out religious conversions. After several appeals, the NGO announced that it is shutting down its India operations on March 15 this year.

Source: New York Times, Hindu