Special Articles

Who Is Neville Roy Singham Named In The NYT Report & Linked To Indian Leftist Portal NewsClick?

August 8, 2023
The Commune

Neville Roy Singham, the American tech millionaire who is currently based in Shanghai, was named in the New York Times report of 5 August 2023. The report accuses him of using organisations across the world to peddle Chinese propaganda. 

Who Is Neville?

Neville Roy Singham is the son of Dr. Archibald Singham, a Sri Lankan Tamil scholar, political scientist, and historian. Dr. Archibald Singham’s roots trace back to Sri Lankan Tamil immigrants who settled in colonial Burma.

In the past, the Ceylon Communist Party (of the Moscow Wing) encompassed Sinhalese and Dutch Burgher members. Conversely, the Ceylon Communist Party (of the Peking Wing) exhibited notable Tamil leadership. His mother is said to be a Jamaican. 

Born in Burma in 1932 to parents from Sri Lanka, Archie certainly lived a peripatetic life teaching at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica and then at Howard University, sitting in a room with Fidel Castro and Kenneth Kaunda and then arguing with his close friend CLR James about race and class. 

Singham has maintained a deep ideological connection with the Chinese Communist Party. This affiliation can be traced back to his earlier involvement with the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, a Detroit-based group influenced by Maoist principles. 

Image Source: MR Online

During this time, Singham assumed the role of a member of the organisation, which championed revolutionary unionism as a response to discriminatory practices within conventional unions. At the age of 18 in 1972, Singham even secured employment at the Detroit Chrysler plant as part of his engagement with the league.

Following his education at Howard University where his father taught, Singham dedicated the subsequent years to establishing a consulting firm that specialised in assisting equipment-leasing companies. Operating initially from a basement in Chicago, he gradually built up this venture. In 1993, he christened his enterprise Thoughtworks, later broadening its scope to encompass what he terms “Agile” software development. This methodology entails adaptive management, decentralised systems, and fostering strong collaboration between developers and users.

As stated in a profile on the Chinese recruitment platform Boss Zhipin, Singham was employed by the prominent Chinese tech giant Huawei from 2001 to 2008 in the capacity of a strategic technical consultant. Throughout this duration, he expressed his admiration for China’s economic framework. In an interview with Fortune magazine’s senior editor David Kirkpatrick in 2008, Singham enthusiastically endorsed China’s economic approach, stating, “China is teaching the West that the world is better off with a dual system of both free-market adjustments and long-term planning.” 

In 2010, Thoughtworks organised its Fifth Agile Software Development Conference in Beijing, where Singham asserted his impact on Huawei during his opening address.

Subsequently, Thoughtworks has extended its presence to encompass 17 nations, engaging with clientele in the corporate sphere. Simultaneously, the company has displayed an inclination towards providing pro bono services to progressive media outlets like Democracy Now! and non-profit organisations like the Grameen Foundation, which focuses on extending microloans to underprivileged populations across the world. 

In 2017, Singham divested Thoughtworks to Apax, a British private equity firm, for an undisclosed sum (believed to be in the range of hundreds of millions). Following the transaction, he departed from the company entirely. Notably, Apax subsequently facilitated the initial public offering of Thoughtworks on the Nasdaq stock exchange in September 2021, attaining a valuation that nearly approached $9 billion.

Neville Roy Singham’s Investments

Neville Roy Singham has invested in two Chinese firms operating in the consulting and food sectors: Shanghai Luoweixing (with an initial investment of $20 million) and Gondwana Foods ($32.5 million). Singham is also mentioned as the official representative of a third enterprise, namely Shanghai Shinong Company Ltd. Source – 

Singham’s investments also intersected with philanthropic endeavors aligned with China’s interests. In 2019, the Justice and Education Fund donated $876,000 to the People’s Welfare Association, a recently established organisation located in Madison, Wisconsin. Notably, one of the directors of this entity, until September 2019, was Daniel Tirado Behrens, who was employed at Shanghai Luoweixing.

It was reported that Singham made use of four recently established nonprofit entities, including the United Community Fund and Justice and Education Fund, which lacked a tangible physical presence. These organisations were associated with addresses solely registered at UPS store mailboxes situated in Illinois, Wisconsin, and New York. According to the New York Times report, substantial amounts of money were observed to circulate globally from these UPS store-affiliated nonprofits. The New York Times successfully traced these funds to activities such as supporting a South African political party, financing YouTube channels within the United States, and contributing to nonprofit initiatives in Ghana and Zambia.

According to the New York Times report, Singham funded a “very important Left-wing think tank” named Tricontinental. The executive director is none other than Vijay Prashad, a Marxist intellectual and political commentator. His bio in Influence Watch reads “Vijay Prashad is a Marxist journalist and historian. An ardent supporter of communism, Prashad is the author of many books defending the ideology’s legacy and is a frequent contributor to a number of left-wing news sites and publications. Prashad is a frequent guest at talks hosted by the New York-based socialist incubator The People’s Forum.”

And what a coincidence that Prashad turns out to be Communist leader Brinda Karat!

In the past, Vijay has also praised Singham to be “A Marxist with a massive software company!” 

 

Vijay was an ardent fan of Archibald Singham as seen from this thread. Here is a Twitter thread on Archibald Singham that Vijay shared.  

Now if our readers do not remember Vijay, here is a video that went viral in social media some time ago and Vijay was praised for his speech on coloniality. But in reality, he seems to be speaking in support of China. 

Jodie Evans & Code Pink

In 2017, Singham got married to Jodie Evans — a former Democratic political adviser and one of the co-founders of Code Pink, an organisation led by women. This women-led organisation was established in 2002 as a response to the United States’ engagement in the Iraq War, with a focus on promoting peace and social equity.

At the age of 68, Jodie Evans previously held a role as an influential figure within the Democratic Party, overseeing the 1992 presidential campaign of California’s Governor Jerry Brown. Following the 2001 terrorist attacks, she transformed into that of an activist. She gained popularity especially for her distinct pink peace-sign earrings and for her participation in sit-in demonstrations during which she was arrested.

She played a pivotal role in establishing Code Pink as a response to protest the imminent Iraq War, shifting her focus towards activism. The organisation gained notoriety for its disruptive actions during hearings on Capitol Hill.

Evans has been actively involved in advocacy for issues such as climate change, gender equality, and addressing racism. Until a few years ago, she openly voiced her criticisms of China’s authoritative regime.

“We demand China stop brutal repression of their women’s human rights defenders,” she wrote on Twitter in 2015. Later, she shared a photo on Instagram featuring the Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei.

Starting from 2017, approximately 25% of Code Pink’s total donations, which amounts to over $1.4 million, have originated from two entities associated with Mr. Singham, as per nonprofit records. The initial source was one of the UPS store-affiliated nonprofits. The second was a charitable organisation provided by Goldman Sachs as a conduit for clients’ contributions, a platform Mr. Singham had made use of in the past.

However, now, Evans vociferously advocates for China, portraying it as a champion of marginalised groups and a paradigm of economic progress devoid of forced labour or conflict. “If the U.S. crushes China, it would cut off hope for the human race and life on Earth,” she said in 2021.

She describes the Uyghurs as terrorists and defends their mass detention. “We have to do something,” she said in 2021. In a recent YouTube video chat, she was asked if she had anything negative to say about China. “I can’t, for the life of me, think of anything,” Evans responded. Ultimately, her sole grievance was that she encountered difficulties when attempting to use China’s mobile payment applications.

Evans refused to answer questions about funding from her husband but said Code Pink had never taken money from any government. “I deny your suggestion that I follow the direction of any political party, my husband, or any other government or their representatives,” she said in a written statement. “I have always followed my values.”

Code Pink goes on to further defend the Chinese government’s policies, comparing Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrators to Capitol rioters in this 2021 video. In June, activists visited House Select Committee members, denouncing evidence of forced labor in Xinjiang and urging Representative Seth Moulton to visit and observe the happiness of the people.

“They are capitalizing on very legitimate concerns in order to push this pro-authoritarian narrative,” said Brian Hioe, an editor with New Bloom, a progressive Taiwanese news site. “And their ideas end up circulating in a way that affects mainstream discourse.”

It has been found that Chinese state media accounts on Twitter have reshared posts from individuals and groups within Mr. Singham’s circle on at least 122 occasions since February 2020. These retweets were primarily associated with accounts linked to No Cold War and Code Pink.

In 2021, under Evans’ leadership, Code Pink launched a campaign named “China Is Not Our Enemy”. Through a petition on their website, Code Pink asserted that the United States was escalating its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region under the pretext of “deterrence” for a potential conflict with China. However, this approach was deemed to exacerbate tensions, impacting billions of individuals and the unspoiled ecosystems in the area. “China is trapped in an encirclement by the US through increasing military presence and arms sales. Tell Congress that we do not want war with China!”

Nate Singham, the son of Neville Singham, is situated in Brazil, where he serves as a researcher at Tricontinental. In the section titled ‘What We Do’, the think tank explains that its focus lies in developing insights drawn from the lessons of “social and cultural transformations wrought by popular struggles”. The fundamental foundation for this approach to knowledge is rooted in Karl Marx’s ’11th Thesis on Feuerbach’. 

Instruments Of Chinese Propaganda

Ever since the New York Times report was published, the name Neville Roy Singham has been making the rounds in media channels. 

Latest information suggests a whole new angle of how he might have been involved in various affairs of our country. While the NYT report reveals his connection to the Indian leftist portal, Newsclick, and how the funding to promote Chinese propaganda occurred, news coming in shows that there was more to this input. 

It has been revealed that Neville Roy Singham exchanged emails with Prabir Purkayastha of the NewsClick, various journalists, and CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat. 

The emails focus on the following points:

  1. Defending China’s position on COVID 
  2. Supporting Farmers Protests in India 
  3. Collaborating with Indian communists 
  4. Promoting Chinese propaganda 
  5. Defending border clashes with India 

Neville is also seen to be introducing the NewsClick team to the Chinese handlers to take further instructions in the email.

The New York Times report mentioned NewsClick stating that “In New Delhi, corporate documents indicate that Mr. Singham’s network provided financial backing to a news website called NewsClick. The website’s coverage reportedly incorporated Chinese government talking points, with one video stating that “China’s history continues to inspire the working classes.”

ED Raids On NewsClick

On 9 February 2021, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted a raid at the residence of Prabir Purkayastha, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick. ED sources revealed that NewsClick had received ₹10 crores through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from an American company. 

Interestingly, Prabir Purkayastha claimed to have no knowledge of the reason behind the American company’s transfer of money to his company’s account, and he could not provide any evidence of work done for that specific company.

However, here we see a very different version of Prabir Purkayastha.

Upon further investigation by the ED, it was discovered that another US-based company had provided ₹20 crores to NewsClick, labeling it as ‘Export Remittance.’ This transfer was made in response to NewsClick’s content uploaded on a platform called People’s Dispatch.

According to sources, it was revealed that Purkayastha had received ₹1.5 crores under the pretext of maintenance. Surprisingly, he had employed an electrician with only a ninth-grade education to handle the maintenance tasks at his office. The concerning part was that this transaction lacked any documentation, making it challenging for him to provide a valid explanation to the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

It is noteworthy to mention that Prabir Purkayastha is also one of the Directors at Digipub which is a group of leftist and Islamist sympathizing digital portals including Alt News, Newsclick, Newslaundry, Scroll, The News Minute, etc.

Email Exchange Between Neville Roy Singham & NewsClick’s Prabir Purkayastha 

On 6 January 2021, an email is sent by Neville Roy Singham to Purkayastha. The email has a map of Arunachal Pradesh and the border shared with China and it says, “…I think we missed the dotted line b/w India & China to the left (east of Bhutan). Clearly, China & India will have to have two maps inside their countries.”

Purkayastha shares a map and says “Here is a map from the Diplomat where China claims Arunachal Pradesh.”

Such an email exchange makes one wonder what kind of a conversation was actually going on that an independent investor and an independent journalist had to discuss India’s international borders. 

The Karat Connect

While in the above tweet, Prakash Karat’s name is mentioned, it must be noted that Tricontinental, a Massachusetts-based think tank received donations from Neville. Vijay Prashad, the Executive Director of this organisation, praised Neville as “A Marxist with a massive software company!” on his Twitter. 

Incidentally, Vijay is the nephew of CPIM leader, Brinda Karat who happens to be Prakash Karat’s wife. 

This video shows how involved Prakash Karat was with Neville in the aftermath of the Galwan clash between India and China. In this email, you can see how concerned Karat is because India had decided to stop imports and restrict investments from China. 

Source: Screengrab of Times Now video

With the skeletons of NewsClick tumbling from the closet, it is the moral responsibility of Prabir Purkayastha, Abhisar Sharma and Digipub members to give clarifications on it.

 

Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.