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M C Raj
Dec 4, 2012, 6:06:57 AM12/4/12
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Should Government and NGOs be at Crossroads?04 December, 2012
Can we absolve some NGOs of being willy-nilly agents of one or other foreign elements? Though it is very difficult to define what exactly is foreign it is important to see that NGOs do not play into the hands of countries that are inimical to the interests of India.
THIS IS difficult, as even the government of India is vigorously in pursuit of ushering in FDI in retail sector, which many NGOs in India see as a betrayal of Indian interests. There are heated debates not only among NGOs but also more in the business sector about the possible fall out of such a move from the Government. Political parties are almost pulling the rugs from under the feet of the ruling party. The government seems to be at cross roads when it blames the protesting NGOs in Koodankulam as being instigated by foreign countries.
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It is true that the United States engineers many social and political processes in almost all continents under the garb of supporting development works. When Hazare’s India Against Corruption protests and fasts were going on in Delhi one of the serious allegations was that it was being supported by funds received from Ford Foundation. Around the same time democracy and governance were being disrupted in some African/Latin American nations by tacit financial support from the US. One needs to dig into the strategic documents of the US in order to substantiate such allegations in the media. But there are enough grounds to reasonably believe in the subversive engineering of the US and some European nations through development support.
Many NGOs are in hot pursuit of such funds wherever they are available without caring a hoot for the intentions behind such donor countries. Such NGOs deserve all condemnation. They cannot be excused under the garb of being ignorant. Information given to their donors about situations in India via reports can easily be used for Strategic Plans in these nations. Choice of donors becomes imperative on the part of NGOs. Money is very attractive and it is often difficult to say no to it when it is offered on a platter, which some Northern NGOs do. But NGOs in developing countries need to be clear on the type of choices they make.
However, blaming all NGOs is an unwarranted panicky reaction. Quite a few of them keep the question of rights alive. The danger that the government and the country have to be aware of is a new brand of professionals acting as middlemen and women in this gamut of development. Availability of easy and large money has motivated even a few NGO leaders to give up their work among the people and opt to become professional consultants.
Half-baked in their understanding of the issues that beset the country and the poor they become the educators of donors in other countries about the priorities and policies that they need to make vis-à-vis the development of India. More than targeting the NGOs the Government of India has to actually get at the throats of these Consultants who are the actual conduits of all sorts of information and influence. It is very difficult to find committed consultants from among the poor sections of society as donors expect a level of capacity that is often beyond the reach of the ‘development actor’ at the bottom level.
Problems at the bottom level cannot be ignored either. Many NGO leaders are just talking machines, in other words they can be called efficient bull-shitters. Many of them have grown up in situations of extreme deprivation and have acquired enormous load of anger against the system, society and government. When they gain a little space, often through their bullshit, they unload their anger. No problem! But they unload it on wrong targets. Often this is appreciated as commitment, thirst for justice, love for the poor and patriotism.
Such ‘development actors’ often function under compulsions that they acquired in their surroundings as they grew up into adults. They now operate under compulsions that they are unaware of. Acting under compulsion can often blind a person to look realities in true perspective. Being appreciated for such unloading of compulsive anger the ‘development actor’ develops a technology that will propel him into the orbit of NGO leadership. Unless such leaders transform their anger and compulsion into genuine commitment for the people by dealing with their own personality traits, NGOs are bound to become disruptive of the development of people instead of being promoters.
This is one of the reasons why most NGOs are often condemned wholesale as good for nothing. There is legitimacy in such argumentation. NGOs do develop what is known in psychology as DRR, disproportionate repeated reactions. Such compulsive behaviour does not allow the NGOs to invent new paths of liberation/development of the poor. They are more disaster prepared than being pro-active and creating on their own.
After sometime their language wears out and their bullshit is exposed. They begin run from pillar to post looking out for funds for survival. They invent the strategy to change the tenor of their bullshit. They find out through internet many organizations that are ready to give funds according to the priority they have set. The NGOs here fit themselves to that priority giving up their own priority. The problem is that they never had a priority. Their only priority was letting out their unresolved anger. That took shape as NGOs.
Speaking of disaster I remember Tsunami in Tamilnadu. It was also a tsunami of waves of money for many NGOs, a sort of ‘godsend’ opportunity. They grabbed it shamelessly. Those who had nothing to do with the sea and fisher-people suddenly became their champions and saviours. The floodgates of foreign money were let open freely for them. NGOs from different other States pitched their tents in the seashores claiming to have their branches in Tamilnadu.
They made a mincemeat of the victims of tsunami, many their money and wound up. This was also a great opportunity for many donors. They have to establish their credibility in their respective countries both with the government and with the people, meaning with the Churches to legitimize their existence as NGOs. It an age of globalization at all levels. Donor NGOs have as much as, if not more compulsions as Indian NGOs.
In any democracy, keeping the conscience of the nation is a dire need. Who will keep the conscience of the nation? Is it the government? Can the people always function as the conscience of a country? In a country that has an abject level of literacy and in a world where only classified information is passed on to citizens, such a possibility is very remote. Ideally speaking the true conscience of the nation are the people themselves. But most nations in the world have designed programmes to exclude ordinary citizens from governance and function as agents of dominant class of the rich and in India caste forces. India also has a history of banning education specifically to exclude people from democracy and governance. Unfortunately such a legacy is being perpetuated even after 1947. Existence of certain conscientious NGOs becomes imperative to educate the people, to bring them together for collective action in their own interest, and to participate in the mechanisms of governance.
Such efforts by civil society actors are bound to be interpreted by the government, corporate sector, caste forces and other dominance sections of society as being disruptive. But democracy cannot be alive in any nation unless the voice of the people grows powerful and people themselves become powerful decision-makers. We have arrived at an era of democracy where people do not elect their representatives any more.
Representative elect themselves through their parties and seek mandate from the people to be their representatives. In order to do this they indulge in all sorts of disruptive practices. The compulsive factors that we have spoken of NGOs can equally be applied to those who are in governance. Letting out unresolved anger has now become mutual and therefore, mutual blaming seems inevitable.
The Government of India will do well to look at the awakened consciousness of the people through the assiduous efforts of civil society actors as positive and allow necessary space for the growth of such efforts. The mutuality should be more proactive and creative. India now claims to be a donor country and is replicating many methods of the donor countries that it blames. It is time that Indian government channelized its funds within India to keep the spirit of Indian democracy glowing. This will imply appreciating and supporting well-meaning NGOs in India.
M C Raj
REDS, REDS RoadShanthinagar
Tumkur 572102
Karnataka, India
Phone: ++91-816-2277026
Fax: ++91-816-2272515
Mobile: ++9845144893
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