During the decade following the receipt of the donations in 2006, Sonia Gandhi and family were invited to the Olympics and the Congress signed an MoU with the Chinese Communist Party in 2008.
In an unprecedented expose which has grave implications for our democracy, it has emerged that the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi has received lakhs of rupees as donation from Embassy of China and Government of China. Incidentally, former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, former Finance Ministe P Chidambaram, Priyanka Gandhi and other Congress leaders are on the board of the foundation.
The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation headed by Sonia Gandhi has former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, P Chidambaram and others as Trustees
The available details show that these donations were made by China when UPA 1 was in power at the centre. One of the transactions revealed under FCRA shows that Embassy of The People’s Republic of China donated an amount of Rs. 90 lakhs to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in December 2006. The purpose was stated as ‘Other expenses’ without offering further details to the nature of the usage of these funds.
Embassy of The People’s Republic of China donated an amount of Rs. 90 lakhs to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in December 2006
Similarly, the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies (RGICS) directly received donation from Government of China during the same finacial year. Both the Embassy and Government of China are listed as Partner Organisations and Donors of the RGF and RGICS.
Embassy and Government of China are listed as Partner Organisations and Donors of the RGF and RGICS
Donations and Aftermath
The donations from China were received in 2005-06 by the RGF. However, what followed in the coming years is a matter of grave concern for India’s democracy and economic well-being.
In 2008, Sonia Gandhi the her family were invited for Beijing Olympics but NOT Dr Manmohan Singh, then PM of India. During the same year, Congress signed a MoU with the Chinese Communist Party the details of which are yet to be made public. Further, Sonia Gandhi had given a freewheeling interview to Chinese news agency Xinhua in 2011 regarding the 2008 MOU signed with the CCP. But neither Sonia Gandhi nor her party has shared the details of the MoU with the Indian public. Now, a PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court demanding the same.
Study by RGICS proposed that FTA with China is a must
RGICS during 2010-11 conducted studies on why India must sign FTA with China. The study proposed that ‘..the bilateral economic relations can be improved substantially through propose (sic) FTA and free flow of goods, services, investment and capital and India’s need for FTA is more than China to intensify the trade sector in the country’. It is now public knowledge that though China got a free-hand under UPA to dump its goods in India, China gave no such leeway to Indian products.
Trade figures between India and China between 2004-2014 when UPA 1 and 2 were in power show that the Trade Deficit with China multiplied by a whopping 33 times during this period. P Chidambaram was the finance minister for most parts of UPA 1 and 2.
It can also be recalled, the Rahul Gandhi had secretly met Chinese Envoy during the Doklam crisis where India was engaging China at all fronts including the diplomatic front. The details of the meet were never made public by the Congress but few photos of the meet were leaked to the media.
