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Have a watch on People’s Watch: Madurai based NGO exposed

September 22, 2020
The Commune

Recently, Justice Kirubakaran of the Madras High Court who came down heavily on the Tamil Nadu media and politicians for glorification of NEET suicides, made another significant remark while hearing the bail plea of a member belonging to a banned seditious organization.

Referring to the seditious pamphlets issued by Tamil Nadu Liberation Army, Justice Kirubakaran said that fringe elements wearing the masks of NGOs, Human Rights Organizations and political groups are more active in Tamil Nadu trying to create unrest by inducing fear psychosis, spreading hatred and instigating people to protest by means of continuous propaganda through media especially social media, while also acknowledging the yeomen service rendered by organizations working truly for the people.

In Tamil Nadu, one can find these elements who under the garb of ‘social activists’ raise funds from abroad for their NGOs in the name of working for social causes and use it to incite people to take to the streets.

The Commune had earlier exposed the funding and working of The Other Media, one of the FCRA NGOs that was instrumental in closing down Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper Plant at Thoothukudi.

In the same league is People’s Watch, an NGO based out of Madurai working in the area of ‘human rights’.

People’s Watch, not its original name

People’s Watch was founded by Henri Tiphagne, an advocate and a ‘human rights activist’. He is also the Executive Director of People’s Watch whose full time job is to file public interest litigations (PILs).

But, People’s Watch is not a registered organization. It is a unit of Centre for Promotion of Social Concerns (CPSC). The FCRA license of CPSC through which it raised foreign funds was revoked in 2016. The real name of People’s Watch – CPSC – came to light, after reports of the organization filing a petition in court against its FCRA license revocation appeared in the media.

Still, many people know it only as People’s Watch and not CPSC. Henri Tiphagne is known as the founder of People’s Watch and not CPSC, probably to keep the details of its funding away from light. But, the names of the organizations that funded the CPSC are a testament to the organization’s background.

MISEREOR is a German Catholic Bishops’ Organization and is the official aid framework of the Catholic Church in Germany – since 1962. The German government under German law is obligated  to provide financial support for the development work of church-aid organizations.

MISEREOR is a problematic organization. It has funded (still funds) many radical Palestinian NGOs. It had sponsored a 2013 conference, organized by radical Israeli NGO Zochrot calling for the ‘elimination of Israel’.

Bread for the World is a Christian advocacy organization based in the United States. It has ties with many NGOs linked to the church in India. In its website, it says it is a “globally active development and relief agency of the Protestant Churches in Germany”. BfW openly claims to “influence political decisions through lobbying” which it does by funding the thought leaders and members of civil society.

Enfants Du Monde is a Swiss NGO. This is how it shows India in its website.

This is just the tip of the ice berg. The CPSC has received funding from organizations associated with the Danish church, church organizations of the USA like United Church Foundation (New York), Common Global Ministries (Ohio),  Catholic Organization for Relief and Development Aid (CORDAID) of Netherlands to name a few.

In all, the CPSC had received more than ₹45 crores as funding from these organization from 2006-07 to 2016-2017. It was in the year 2008-09 (UPA regime) when it had received the highest funding.

This is just for the period of 10 years. Please note that the CPSC was founded in the year 1995. We do not have the record of the previous 10 years.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Henri

People’s Watch, which claims to be a human rights organization, protested against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 that sought to fast track the citizenship process of to Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Parsi, Sikh and Jain minorities suffering from human rights abuses and oppression in the neighbouring Islamic states.

When the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights ordered that children under the age of 18 should not be involved in these ‘protests’, Henri Tiphagne protested against the order, saying “children have the right to fight.”

This flag bearer of human rights defended and even condemned the arrest of Berlin Jose, Russ Foundation’s founder and John Prabhakar, an employee of the orphanage run by the foundation who were accused by a 10 year old girl of sexual assault. They have been charged under the POCSO Act and were recently released on bail. Henri Tiphagne alleged that he was intentionally arrested under the Goondas Act so that he would not be granted bail.

It is noteworthy to mention that John Prabhakar used to share posts in support of Henri on social media.

Not just that. Henri, the champion of free speech, democracy and civil rights put a defamation case on Tamil daily Dinamalar for just reporting about an incident in which its name had come up. In the article dated November 6, 2003 Dinamalar had reported about the Deputy Superintendent of Police of Sivakasi raiding the premises of People’s Watch  in search of culprits who had attacked a couple and stolen jewellery as the police had received information that they were hiding there. Tiphagne had put a defamation suit of 11 lakhs against Dinamalar for reporting this news. However, the court dismissed the case seeing no merits in Tiphagne’s arguments.

This supposed voice of the downtrodden is also accused of ill discrimination against Dalits working at his office. Vanniyarasu, a Dalit lawyer who had been working with Tiphagne at the People’s Watch left the organization as he was treated badly.

Henri is also accused of operating the People’s Watch as a family property. The employees are reportedly treated like slaves. Uma Rani, who had worked at the organization for six years was dismissed and expelled for taking a day off without even providing an explanation. Another person named Murugappan was harassed and fired without even settling his pay. His certificates were withheld and was demanded money for the return of the same. He is also said to force students who come to stay in the office to engage in the protests organized by the organization.

Recent activities

Back in 2018, he had also participated in a protest for the formation of the Cauvery Management Board organized by various Church denominations. He shared stage with Ezra Sargunam, one of the most powerful evangelists in Tamil Nadu with close ties to the DMK. Ezra Sargunam had called for ‘punching Hindus in the face and make them bleed’ apparently to make the Hindus understand that there is no religion called Hinduism.

In the picture you can also see Jegath Gasper Raj, a Catholic priest who shares close ties with the DMK and someone who is officially referred in US crime records for involving in multiple criminal activities in support of LTTE.

Henri, who has nothing to do with Hinduism, morphed himself into a ‘Tamil activist’ and joined the cabal that advocated for temple consecration of Thanjavur Brihadeeswarar Temple to be conducted in Tamil and not in Sanskrit (as per Agamic traditions). He also commented on “Alagu Kuthardhu”, a Hindu ritual where devotees of Lord Murugan or Goddess Amman pierce Vels or Trishuls in their mouth, tongue or any other body part, saying that it is wrong for parents to ‘torture’ their children for their own purposes.

Henri also organized and participated in protests against the Salem 8 lane highway project. Currently, he is involved with Christian organizations that are opposing the National Education Policy 2020.

Recently, the George Antonysamy, the Archbishop of Madras and Mylapore had issued a circular about an online campaign against the NEP 2020. One of the numbers given in the circular is that of People’s Watch.

Henri Tiphagne had even put out a tweet in support of DMK Kanimozhi’s “Hindi Theriyathu Poda” T-shirt episode.

A mercenary with bosses elsewhere

CPSC is in essence an imperialist mercenary organization. Though its FCRA license has been cancelled and its foreign inflows stopped, it still continues to function.

The US government and Church organizations set up and run ‘human rights’ organizations in every country to peddle its foreign policy agenda and one of the agenda that is on top of these organizations is interfering in the affairs of the host country.

On the outside, these organizations, activists and media seem like they stand for justice. However, these outfits peddle a certain narrative that glorifies certain values and exaggerates half-truths. All their frustration against this government has been due to the fact their money inflow has been stopped that has taken a hit on their mercenary work.

It would be worthy to recall the NAM troika that was discussed in the earlier expose about The Other Media. The NGO-Activist-Media troika is an ecosystem where the three entities scratch each other’s back to help them promote themselves at the cost of lives and livelihood.

The NAM troika not just influences policy making and decisions by nurturing opinion makers and thought leaders to stand against development projects, but also spread anarchy knowingly or unknowingly. We are country that is governed by rule of law and in a country governed by rule of law, institutions upon which power is bestowed by the people and the Constitution should have the right to fulfil the developmental aspirations of the people and deliver justice. Not by those whose source of revenue are questionable.

So, the next time one sees People’s Watch getting cited as an authoritative voice on human rights, remember the wise words of Justice Kirubakaran.