The organization @sewausa is also affiliated with the Right Wing organization RSS - which is the parent body of the BJP - the political party in power in India, responsible for the Covid catastrophe unleashed there. People on #medtwitter have successfully sought donations for it.

Here’s a news clipping that should help people relate. By donating to this organization, money has been channelled to the very group that has brought us to this point.

Not only have these organizations put the country and the world into a serious crisis, they have effectively destroyed democracy in India. Physicians of Indian origin - May be you are associating with these organizations out of innocence, may be not. Regardless, please stop now.

Regardless of what your families’ ideologies have been, regardless of who you have traditionally been aligned with — it is unconscionable right now to actively elicit support for the very groups that have criminally turned your homeland into a Covid hellhole.

And please don’t give me the tired defense of how the BJP and the RSS, VHP etc are separate organizations. They are bound by the same Hindu supremacist ideology. It is wrong to only speak out against racism in the US and not call out parallel actions of oppression in India.

This is a nice ritual by the RSS and Sewa and similar groups, by the way, to do the helping-people-out routine after the mess has been created by the BJP.

I wish I knew who to tag for amplification. Most seem silent, may be complicit - not sure.
It is not pleasant to speak out alone in a sphere where most practice silence and curate their profiles to look “professional”, but this is getting intolerable.

This is a thread by @gauravsabnis elaborating further about Sewa International https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1387138963325034506?s=20

The confusion that we are witnessing about which charity to donate to, with all the burden to confirm non fascist links falling on us, is also an indicator of the breakdown of trust in institutions...contd...

Growing up, we wouldn’t think twice before donating to Prime Minister’s contingency funds etc. There used to be a confidence that government funds wouldn’t be somebody’s get-rich-quick-using-a-calamity scheme.

Hey @mikeives , your NYT piece recommends donating to the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin which has partnered with Sewa International - a charity front for a fascist group. Please remove this recommendation. (Read through this thread please).

I see clarifications being issued regarding the delivery of oxygen concentrators through Sewa. Well, the question is why partner with such an organization in the first place? What does that say about your thought process/ values and what you’re willing to ignore?

In 2004 @dionnebunsha wrote this detailed article “the hidden face of charity” highlighting the role of Sewa International in funding the RSS. https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/article30222073.ece

The article is also available through @dionnebunsha ’s website (the screenshot on the left shows an excerpt), on the right is a petition to revoke the organization’s 501c status.

The decision of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin to partner with Sewa International speaks a lot about the insider thought process. This is deeply saddening.