Kejriwal a CIA agent, says Chandumajra

Tribune News Service 

Patiala, January 31

Shiromani Akali Dal general secretary and Anandpur Sahib MP Prem Singh Chandumajra today dubbed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as a person propped up by funding through the Ford Foundation and other agencies with a long-term objective to destabilise the country. He asserted his links to this effect, including some known international operators, were available from documents pertaining to his foundation that he floated against the rules when he was a government official.

Kejriwal’s NGO Sampooran Parivartan was granted 80,000 dollars in 2002 when he was still a government servant for which he did not take any permission from the government. There were several grants that he received from various sources linked to CIA in one way or the other.

Chandumajra said Kejriwal launched his NGO while on study leave and availed full salary as government employee in 2000-2001. He received funds from the World Bank for his Jan Sunvai programme even as his organisation was not registered. He later set up another NGO Kabir on August 15, 2005, when he was still in government service. He received Rs 43,48,036 from the Ford Foundation in the name of this NGO. Interestingly, this money was transferred in July before he had officially launched this NGO. He resigned from the government service in 2006.

He referred to association of a researcher Shimrit Lee with NGO Kabir under the garb of doing research on ‘Public Power: India and other Democracies’. He said Lee specialises in demonstrations as witnessed in Egypt (Tahrir Square Arab Spring) and then in Ukraine. She had also been active in Chad, Haifa and Israel. The concept of Mohalla Committee adopted by AAP originated with her. She helped in the launch of Kejriwal in India. He asserted the background of Lee was questionable as she too was linked to the CIA.

Chandumajra said details of foreign funding to Kejriwal were available and he needs to answer on that. Moreover, the person who is teaching ethical politics to others must come clean as to how he availed of such funding while being in government service.

He said it was not just a coincidence that several of his associates during the initial days for forming the party were those who had been receiving foreign funding or had been Magsaysay awardees.

Chandumajra said the links of CIA with the Ford Foundation and Magsaysay were too well known. He demanded that the funding of all NGOs associated with Kejriwal must be probed by a high-level agency.