BJP MP seeks action against Setalvad

BJP's national vice-president and Rajya Sabha member Purushottam Rupala has written a letter to the Home Secretary, Government of India, asking him to cancel the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act (FCRA) account of activist Teesta Setalvad's NGO Citizen for Peace and Justice (CJP) as she has violated its provisions.

In his letter dated January 24, Rupala stated, "Perusal of documents placed before me proves beyond doubt that CJP, headed by Setalvad, has flouted all the three conditions of the FCRA registration."

FCRA registration is mandatory for NGOs receiving foreign funds.

Rupala has demanded criminal action against the trustees of CJP.

According to Rupala, while granting FCRA registration to CJP on November 21, 2007, three conditions were imposed — bank account mentioned in application shall be used for receiving foreign funds, the organisation will not bring out any publication or its office-bearers will not act as correspondent, columnist, editor or publisher of a registered newspaper, and it is forbidden from getting involved in any kind of political activities.

In his letter, Rupala has claimed the CJP accepted a local donation of Rs 10 lakh on February 2, 2009, from Chatwal Groups and Rs 2 lakh from Sourya Foundation in its FCRA account. The second violation, according to Rupala, is that Setalvad and Javed Anand are trustees of CJP and columnist, editors and publishers of a registered magazine Communalism Combat.

Rupala has also claimed that another company run by Setalvad and Anand is Sabrang Communications and Publishing, which is the printer and publisher of Communalism Combat.

The BJP MP has stated that CJP participated in 2007 Gujarat Assembly elections and 2009 general elections.

He said a complaint with all the documentary evidence has been lodged with Home Ministry by a local resident.

When contacted Setalvad said, "A similar story was published in a newspaper in early January where Rais Khan said the same thing. CJP has always functioned legally. We deny this categorically, but insist that this indicates a collusion between R K (Rais Khan) and BJP, something we have been saying since 2010."

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