The Hindu Business Line : Code for NGOs

SUCH of those non-government organisations (NGOs) as are working for clean politics and good governance need to exercise vigilance in order to preserve their independence and faithfulness to the causes they espouse.

The caution is not as self-evident and simple as it seems. For the more effective and focussed a reformist NGO is, the more is it likely to ruffle entrenched vested interests that are affected or exposed by its activities. They may be anti-social mischief-makers, corporate bosses, political high-fliers, ruling establishments or any coterie or cabal with axes to grind.

It is important for those running public-spirited NGOs to be conscious of these risks and be on guard against overt or covert attempts at softening them, by exploiting common human weaknesses. One such weakness is the desire to be one up on others. Another is the craving for invitations to participate in national or international seminars with all expenses paid.

The third is to covet official recognition by being made part of some commission, committee, council or delegation. The fourth is to hanker after awards and honours conferred by governments, and national and international organisations.

It is best for NGOs devoted to raising the quality of public life to decline the membership of bodies functioning under the aegis of government or political parties, so as to ward off extraneous influences on their work.

Once an NGO fighting for, say, electoral reforms, eradication of corruption, and accountability and rectitude of elected representatives, public servants and corporate executives, is itself lured into becoming "embedded" in the power structure, it loses all its credibility. (Look at the fall from grace of the US media once it allowed its correspondents to get "embedded" in military formations in Iraq!)

Apart from these traps, the domestic and foreign funding organisations themselves may seek to use the NGOs as cats' paws to promote their own agendas by directly or deviously prescribing particular priorities, approaches or courses of action.

If it is remembered that some 21,000 NGOs have been permitted to receive foreign contributions amounting to an equivalent of more than Rs 5000 crore, the nature of the care and watchfulness required becomes obvious.

Is it not time for a code of conduct for NGOs to be drawn up and adopted?

B. S. Raghavan

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