A Brief Background of how Rais Khan has been harassing Setalvad

Khan has, since 2010, thirty two months after he was discontinued from services of field coordinator of CJP, a renumerative post where rental accommodation was also provided, literally been forum shopping and at the root of several malicious and false cases against first Setalvad alone, then both Anand and Setalvad. Setalvad was first targeted in 2004 through wings of the Gujarat state who induced star witness, Zahira Shaikh. A Supreme Court appointed Registrar General report completely exonerated Setalvad and CJP of baseless charges and found Zahira guilty of inducement by influential politicians. She was sentenced to one year simple imprisonment in 2006. Allegations against Setalvad have ranged from kidnapping to perjury now financial embezzlement.

Clearly, today Khan who enjoys the patronage of the regime in Delhi having been appointed to the Central Wakf Board also has senior counsel closely associated with the ruling party appearing for him. Since September 2010 his forum shopping has meant him approaching five trial courts specially hearing the Gujarat 2002 cases, the Nanavaty Shah Commission, the SIT and now the Crime Branch of the Gujarat police. In two judgments, in the Sardarpura matter and the Naroda Patiya matter, the judgments have passed remarks against Khan labelling his conduct as interference in the administration of justice.

Clearly the path-breaking work by CJP, spearheaded by its Secretary, Setalvad that has ensured the conviction of 172 persons — 124 of which to life imprisonment– is the single most significant reason for her being singled out by a vindictive regime. The continued historical legal battle in the form of the Zakia Jafri case too, is a serious thorn in the flesh for the powers that be.

Khan has now, in a new FIR, made a series of baseless allegations suggesting Setalvad and Anand got this funds for their education NGO KHOJ under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, but the funds so obtained were utilised for personal purposes. The complaint also states the fund were used for creating and distributing printed materials that could cause communal disharmony. Khan first tried to get CBI, then MHRD to lodge this complaint. When that did not work, his allies in the crime branch have come to his aid.

So far, Teesta Setalvad, a human rights defenders with three decades of courageous work behind her, has had to seek anticipatory bail in false criminal cases eight times already. Curtailing her personal freedoms and threatened incarceration is clearly the preferred way of this regime. Anand too, has now been falsely implicated three times.
 

Now, CJP would like to set the record straight by presenting a summary of the facts of the case:

In 1994, Setalvad and Anand started a programme for school children which was christened as ‘KHOJ: Education for a Plural India’. As a project of Sabrang Trust, the KHOJ innovative educational modules evolved by them have been successfully implemented in both privately run and civic corporation-run schools in Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra over the years.

Prior permission for a team of KHOJ teachers to run these classes in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation run schools, for example, was granted by the BMC’s Education Officer, year after year. KHOJ has been active since 1994 and has been working on the crucial area of Education Policy related to Democratization of the Social Studies and History Syllabus and Text-books.

Teesta Setalvad’s work in the field of education has been widely recognized and she was appointed to the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) Committee (CABE is a board constituted by the Parliament) in 2004 and served on the board till the year 2014. Teesta Setalvad was appointed as a member of the CABE on ‘Regulatory Mechanisms for Textbooks and Parallel Textbooks Taught in Schools outside the Government System’.

The terms of reference (TOR) of the Committee were:

• To study and report on textbooks in government schools not using the CBSE syllabus;
• To study the textbooks and curriculum of schools outside the government system, including those run by religious and social organizations;
• To suggest an appropriate regulatory mechanism for institutionalizing the issue of preparation of textbooks and curricular material.

In the course of their work, Setalvad came to know about the grant by the Ministry of Human Resource Development for Scheme of Assistance under Innovation and Experimental Education Programmes (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan). On behalf of Sabrang Trust, Setalvad submitted the proposal for grant from the Ministry of Human Resource Development to the then Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Human Resource Development Ms. Anita Bhatnagar on 8th March 2010. The said proposal was in the prescribed form along with the necessary Application Form.

Sabrang Trust sought 100% grant from the Ministry of Human Resource Development for a period of three years i.e. 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12. Through the infusion of the grant in the said project the Trust sought in order to reach out to 6000 students in 75 schools, which would include the 2000 students in 33 schools across Maharashtra where KHOJ classes were already being conducted. The said Application Form also laid down the budgetary details of the Trust’s spending on the said project for the fiscal year 2009-10 and the total estimated expenditure for the fiscal year 2010-11. The total amount of grant requested for the fiscal year 2010-11 stood at Rs. 1,00,55,400/- (Rupees One Crore Fifty Five Thousand Four Hundred only).

After Sabrang’s proposal was examined and scrutinised, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School Education & Literacy released the first installment of the grant for the first year of the approved project amounting to Rs. 58,72,500/- by a letter dated 03.02.2011. A Joint Evaluation Team (JET) comprising of Ms. Venita Kaul (Member, Grant-in-Aid Committee), Mr. A. K. Tewari (Government of India Representative) and Mr. Nandan Nangare (State of Maharashtra Representative) under-took and evaluation of the project’s progress on 09-10.02.2012. This was favourable and some changes were suggested which were accepted by Sabrang.

Under the said scheme, 16 teachers were employed during the duration of the project. The said project benefited 192 schools through direct teaching and teacher training programmes. 10 Libraries were setup across Maharashtra and most of the books for the libraries were procured from Government publishing houses. An online project was set up, the same is still in existence 7 short films were made and one book was conceptualized and published as curriculum for 5th standard students. Through this curriculum which was a child centric pedagogy India’s constitutional values and pluralism were imparted to around 6000 students across the State of Maharashtra.

In fact, the JET said,
 

Overall, the objectives and efforts under the KHOJ project are undoubtedly laudable since not only do they cater to the need to promote secularism and peace education, which should be a priority, but also since there is hardly any effort otherwise in mainstream schools to address these aspects. How crucial it is to reach out to the children especially of the urban poor from the slum areas comes across very strongly in the anecdotes shared by KHOJ teachers with the JET.”

Over the period of three years the Ministry of Human Resource Development released grants worth Rs. 1,42,23,797/- (inclusive of bank interest) of which the Trust utilized a total of Rs.1,36,31,686/- and the un-used funds which amounted to Rs. 5,91,871/- was duly returned to the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 12.06.2014. The Ministry of Human Resource Development released grants worth Rs. 58,72,500/, Rs. 26,66,570/- and Rs. 54,20,848/- in the fiscal years 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 respectively and the Applicants furnished relevant utilization certificates.

The entire procedure was above board an in line with the law. CJP therefore requests the media to check their facts before reporting on the case. CJP would also like to warn readers against some outright hateful articles in some publications. We have nothing to hide and all facts have been laid clearly in this statement.
 

Related:

CJP Targeted
Teesta Setalvad targeted yet AGAIN!
 

The post Who is harassing Teesta Setalvad and why: Sabrang’s Official Statement on latest false FIR appeared first on SabrangIndia.

((Statutory Disclosure: This article is about Sabrang India founders Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand.))

It is no secret Human Right Defender Teesta Setalvad has been a thorn in the side of powerful people in the government. It is also no secret that these powerful people have used every means available to continuously harass Setalvad as well as other members of her NGOs Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), including her husband Javed Anand.

One of their favourite stooges is Rais Khan Pathan, a former employee of CJP whose services were discontinued after he disgraced himself by acting in an unethical and unprofessional manner. This disgruntled ex-employee has over the last few years gone on to level a variety of baseless allegations against Setalvad relating to how her NGOs are run, their funding, how those funds are used and also allegedly misused. He has gone forum shopping and filed over a dozen different cases against Setalvad and her team over the years for which he has also been rewarded handsomely by way of being nominated to the Central Waqf Council. Lawyers who have appeared for Khan include those who are on the rolls of the Gujarat state and government.

But it is Pathan’s latest salvo against Setalvad that is the most bizarre. Pathan has now filed a complaint with the Gujarat police claiming Setalvad is mixing ‘religion with politics’ using her school education initiative KHOJ. Pathan claimed KHOJ, that had received a grant of Rs 1.4 crores from the Ministry of Human Resources Development, under the UPA regime, had utilised the funds to spread disharmony by circulating “exploitative literature” full of “hate” and “venom”. Pathan began this campaign within weeks of the Modi regime coming to power (June 2014). Then, former minister Smriti Irani took this forward in February 2015 after which Pathan has reportedly again –using the Crime Branch, Ahmedabad, re-launced this campaign in past weeks. 

Pathan has alleged that the funding was utilised between 2008 and 2014 by the KHOJ project of the Sabrang Trust under the National Policy on Education scheme in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The written materials were prepared for teachers of classes V and VI and that the contentious content was so disturbing and communally sensitive that it could attract charges under sections 153A and 153B of the Indian Penal Code.

But Setalvad rubbishes Pathan’s claims. “This is nothing but part of the same witch-hunt. The HRD Ministry has been cognisant of this matter for a while. We have written to the ministry earlier and now, again. Pathan wants to clearly now use the Crime Branch of the Ahmedabad police,” she asserts. Setalvad has written to HRD Minister Prakash Javdekar strongly contesting the malafide charges against her.  Setalvad had also written to the HRD ministry earlier in 2016 when similar bizarre and baseless charges had been levelled against her by Pathan. The really strange thing about the whole affair is that Pathan has neither the locus not expertise to make this complaint. But this has not deterred the Gujarat police before!

A Brief Background of the KHOJ Case
KHOJ has been active since 1994 and has been working on the crucial area of Education Policy related to Democratisation of the Social Studies and History Syllabus and Text-books. The HRD project was from KHOJ Sabrang’s Secular Education Programme running in municipal and Zilla Parishad schools that has received wide acclaim in general and an extremely positive assessment from the Joint Evaluation Committeee that evaluated the functioning of the project mid-term. It is due to Teesta Setalvad’s recognition in the field of Education that she was appointed to the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) Committee in 2004 and has been there since.

Trouble began in February 2015 when Irani made selective and vicious statements against Setalvad for including the subject of caste in teacher training manuals and in fact how Shivaji was represented. The matter referred to was from a chapter on Shivaji’s coronation used in middle school teacher for training manuals. This narrative of Shivaji is supported by the work of reputed historians like Jadunath Sarkar and Govind Sakharam Sardesai. When objection to this had been first taken by the Shiv Sena in September 2001, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) Maharashtra had completely cleared the Teacher Training text books

According to historian, Jadunath Sarkar: 
“A deep study of Maratha society, indeed of society throughout India, reveals some facts which it is considered patriotism to ignore. We realise that the greatest obstacles to Shivaji’s success were not Mughals or Adil Shahis, Siddis or Feringis, but his own countrymen. First, we cannot be blind to the truth that the dominant factor in Indian life — even today, no less than in the seventeenth century — is caste, and neither religion nor country. By caste must not be understood the four broad divisions of the Hindus which exist only in the textbooks and the airy philosophical generalisations delivered from platforms. The caste that really counts, the division that is a living force, is the sub–division and sub–sub–division into innumerable small groups called shakhas or branches (more correctly twigs or I should say, leaves, they are so many!) into which each caste is split up and within which alone marrying and giving in marriage, eating and drinking together take place…”

Historian Govind Sakharam Sardesai’s New History of the Marathas, too, notes the ticklish issues surrounding Shivaji’s coronation.

“By the beginning of 1673 the idea of a public coronation began to materialize, and when preparations were fully completed, the event took place at fort Raigad, on Saturday 5 June 1674, the day of the sun’s entering the constellation Leo.
The orthodox Brahman opinion was not favourable to Shivaji’s claim to be recognised as a Kshatriya by blood, although he had proved this claim by action. More than a thousand years had passed since such a ceremony was last performed, and on that account men’s memories had been entirely dimmed. All ancient learning of the Deccan had migrated to Benares after the invasion of Ala–ud–din Khilji and the Muslim conquest of the Deccan.
Ancient families noted for hereditary learning like the Devs, the Dharmadhikaris, the Sheshas, the Bhattas, the Maunis, had left their hearths and homes at Paithan, with all their sacred books, and opened their new university of letters on the bank of the holy Ganges. The ignorant unthinking folks of Paithan had now no voice of authority left in them. Benares now began to dominate Hindu thought and learning. So Shivaji had to negotiate with Gaga Bhatt of Benares, a learned representative of that school of Hindu law–givers. He was invited to Raigad to arrange the details in such a way as to suit the needs of the present moment as much as to conform to ancient usage.”

Needless to say, KHOJ has been on the Safron radar ever since and is often in their crosshairs too.

Also Read

Questions and Answers by the Sabrang Trust

A Brief History of Related and Intertwined cases, all initiated by Rais Khan
In June 2014, Rais Khan filed his first complaint alleging that KHOJ had received funds under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan and Rs 1.3 crores of these funds had been misappropriated by Setalvad and Anand. In March 2015, the HRD Ministry set up a committee to investigate these allegations. This was a three-member enquiry committee comprising vice-chancellor of the Central University of Gujarat Syed A Bari, Supreme Court lawyer Avijit Bhattacharjee and Gaya Prasad, a director in the HRD Ministry. The Bari Committee interestingly found no evidence of any wrong doing or illegal activity.

In June 2015, the Home Ministry served notices to the Sabrang Trust and CJP for alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) asking them to reply within 15 days. CJP was said to have received foreign funds to the tune of Rs 1.18 crores from 2008-09 to 2013-14. Every allegation was responded to in great detail backed by documents.

In July 2015, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) officials sought an explanation on consultancy taken from Ford Foundation in June 2015. In mid-June newspaper reports of an FIR by MHA to CBI began to appear. On June 30, 2015, lawyers of CJP spoke to CBI and both Setalvad and Anand wrote to Director, CBI offering full cooperation and also listing all documents made available to MHA during its inspection in June 2015. Despite this, the homes and offices were raided. Within days, the duo moved the CBI Court Mumbai for anticipatory bail. CBI Court rejected ABA of the duo and both were granted interim protection by the Bombay HC. Through one week, under HC directions both Setalvad and Anand appeared before the CBI to answer all questions.

On August 11, 2015, in a high voltage drama, the Bombay HC granted ABA to both, Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, saying speaking against a government is not being anti-national. The CBI challenged this ABA and it was tagged to an ABA related to Gujarat police in a different case. Both cases keep coming up every six weeks and require personal presence of Setalvad and Anand.

In 2016, the Home Ministry granted FCRA License to CJP and put it in Prior Permission Category. Sabrang Trust was given a chance to appear after which license was cancelled. Later in 2016, after being given the FCRA license, the FCRA license of CJP was also cancelled. In December 2016, the CBI initiated a probe into alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). CBI was probing allegations that Sabrang Communication Publishing Pvt Ltd as a company could not accept a consultancy from Ford Foundation. Since FF had deducted TDS from the Consultancy Amount it had been treated as a tax deductible consultancy (source of income) and not a grant.

Apart from the above Rais Khan had also tried to intervene in many different Gujarat riots related cases all in a bid to derail the legal battle CJP has been fighting in order to help get justice for victims and survivors of the Gujarat carnage of 2002. Interestingly he has not only been censured and fined by the relevant courts, but his intervention please have also been dismissed.
Because of CJP’s relentless pursuit of truth and justice, our founders and members have been constantly targeted. Currently we are facing over a dozen false cases.

Disclosure- Since these allegations have been made the Sabrang Trust has, in the interests of transparency, placed the following documents in the public domain:

a) a Brief Note/Chart table on the MHRD Project (Finances) 
b) Annual report of the Project 2012-2013 submitted to the Ministry
c) Annual report of the Project 2013-2014 submitted to the Ministry
d) List of Libraries set up under the project (in English)
e) List of Libraries set up under the project (Hindi)
f) List of Schools in which project was implemented (2012-2013)
g)List of Schools in which project was implemented (2013-2014)
h) Utilisation certificate issued us. The second installments are issued only after accounts are cleared by the MHRD(2012-2013)
i) Utilisation certificate issued in the MHRD project(2013-2014)
j) Audited Accounts of the Project submitted to the Ministry
 
 

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