The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, an international advocacy group and think tank, published a report in September 2020, on the state of police reforms in India.  The report specifically focused on implementation of seven directives issued by the Supreme Court as a ruling in a PIL filed by retired IPS officers Prakash Singh, N.K Singh and Common Cause, a legal rights NGO headed by Prashant Bhushan in 1996. Only two States were found to have complied partially with five of these seven directives – Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh.

While probing the locus standi of an international NGO to assess the functioning of police forces in Indian States, we found that the NGO, CHRI, is closely associated with the police forces of India through an organization called the Indian Police Foundation. While seemingly an official body, our study reveals it to be a voluntary society.

This article seeks to study The Indian Police Foundation a bit more in detail, its leadership, membership, and funding.

Police Foundation and Institute is a Society registered with the Registrar of Societies in 2014. Its Registration Number is S/ND/490/2014. It is registered at a flat in Vasant Kunj, Delhi. But it operates out of the Government building of the BPR&D in Mahipalpur, Delhi, a division of the Union Home Ministry.

Curiously, though it is registered as Police Foundation and Institute, it prefixed the word “Indian” by calling itself as Indian Police Foundation & Indian Police Institute. Coupled with its functioning from a Government premises, it masquerades a Government body.

Their Vision is to serve as a think tank and policy advocacy forum for improving policing in India. They have declared that their focus is across many aspects of policing – transparency, accountability, research and enable decision-making.

It is established and continues to be led by the following people

1. Chairman - Prakash Singh IPS (Retd), ex DG BSF, DGP, UP and Assam
2. President and Founder – Ramachandran IPS (Retd), ex DGP Assam and Meghalaya
3. Treasurer – Sudhir Pratap Singh IPS(Retd), ex DG NSG

The society’s filing on the Government of India’s Darpan portal, as of 17^th September 2020, lists Rishi Raj Singh among key personnel in the Society, but does not include Sudhir Pratap Singh, current Treasurer and brother of Rajiv Pratap Singh Rudy, BJP MP and former Union Minister of State.

Besides these senior retired bureaucrats, there are many serving IPS officers as well as people in official positions in the Govt of India on board

• VSK Kaumudi, DG BPR&D
• AP Maheshwari, DG CRPF
• Pankaj Singh, ADG, BSF,
• Vijaykumar IPS (Retd), Special Advisor, Home Ministry, Government of India
• Satwant Atwal Trivedi, Jt Secretary NATGRID, Govt of India
• Prof Karandikar, Director IIT Kanpur
• Archana Ramasundaram IPS (Retd) Hon'ble Member, Lokpal of India Former DG, SSB
• Abhinav Kumar IGP, Uttarakhand
• Aashish Gupta Secretary Central IPS Association
• P.V. Rama Sastry Addl DG UP
• Renuka Mishra ADGP, Uttar Pradesh
• R. N. Ravi IPS (Retd) Governor, Nagaland

Besides the individuals mentioned above, there are many retired and serving bureaucrats, in leadership positions at the Comptroller and Auditor General Department, Central Vigilance Commission, paramilitary forces, intelligence agencies, criminal investigation agencies and State law enforcement leadership.

There are senior people from Industry, notable among them being

• Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC
• Nandakumar Saravade, CEO, Reserve Bank Information Technology Ltd.
• Rashesh Shah, President FICCI, Chairman and CEO Edelweiss Group

There are also some unexpected names here:

• Deepika Rajawat Advocate J&K High Court Jammu, who rose to fame on the back of her representing the underaged victim’s family in the Kathua case.
• Patricia Mukhim Editor, The Shillong Times, Member NSAB
• Praveen Swami Senior Journalist & Author
• Aparna Piramal Raje, Columnist and Writer

There is representation from Civil Society

• Maja Daruwala Senior Advisor, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) former Executive Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI).
• Sanjoy Hazarika Author and Senior Journalist International Director, CHRI

Funding Sources

• In their Darpan filing, the society has declared that for the financial years 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, expenses were met by contributions made by members. We are including their Darpan filing as an attachment. No information has been provided for subsequent years.
• Their web site describes the process of membership, in which a candidate for membership must apply and have their application vetted before acceptance. There are no fees but a minimum donation of Rs 10,000 is expected ¹
• There are State-wise chapters and we were unable to find a comprehensive list of members of the society.

Civil Society

Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative

Of particular interest is Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), an NGO, two of whose executive personnel are on the board of the Indian Police Foundation.  Wajahat Habibullah is the Chief Functionary of this organization. He is a member of such think tanks as Brookings Centre, Doha, The Tarraqi Foundation, Qatar ².

CHRI received Rs 4.4 crores in funds from abroad through the FCRA route in FY 2018-2019. They had 5.2 crores in term deposits with banks as of that year.

Their donors include

• The British High Commission – an agency of the United Kingdom
• Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom – A German Non-Profit that is established to promote liberal politics and provide support to like-minded political parties across the world. It is headed by leaders of the German Free Democratic Party, who have also been members of the German Federal and State Government
• Hans Seidel Foundation – a German think tank and non-profit partially funded by the German State and by the Christian Social Union, a major German party that operates primarily in the German State of Bavaria.
• Open Society Foundation – an organization run by George Soros the Global financier. They received funds form this organization as recently as 2016-2017. George Soros become prominent in Indian affairs after his announcement of a fund to effect regime change in India.
• Ford Foundation – an organization in America that has been in news for certain controversial grants and associations that affected political life in India.

Maja Daruwala, is currently a Senior Advisor to CHRI and served as a Director for 20 years. She has had a long career in Human Rights and Legal Advocacy. She is associated with Namati, an organization based in the United States and which claims support from the United States Department of State.  The Form-990 of Foundation to Promote Open Society from FY 2016, shows a donation of US$ 1.4 million to Namati. It may be noted that this donor is a charity of George Soros.

Business Fraternity

Archana Piramal Raje, the columnist who writes on urbanization, office design and workplaces would seem an odd choice in a police studies related think tank. However, what is of interest is that she is one of the heiresses to the VIP Industries business group, India’s biggest luggage manufacturer and niece of Ajay Piramal, the leader of the Piramal Group. Her husband, Amit Raje, is the Head of Mergers and Acquisitions for the Mahindra Group.

Questions

In the interest of transparency, certain questions need to be raised and understood

• How is a private Society operating out of the premises of a Union Ministry of Home Affairs department?
• By using a Twitter handle – Indian Police Foundation – and in general communications, why is it styling itself like an official body?
• How are so many senior serving IPS officers members of a private Society? Have they got clearance from authorities to participate in this organization’s activities?
• Why are so many senior retired and serving officers from India’s law enforcement apparatus in the same organization as representatives of an organization like CHRI, which is funded by foreign entities with specific geopolitical goals?

1. https://www.policefoundationindia.org/membership-ipi
2. http://tarraqiifoundation.org/mr-wajahat-habibullah/

Image Credits: Indain Police Foundation