From OpIndia.com
According to reports, the promoters of NGO Omidyar Network are under the scanner for allegedly bribing officials to receive FCRA licenses. A CBI spokesperson had earlier said the raids were conducted “to nab representatives of NGOs, middlemen and public servants of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) division of MHA for committing violations of FCRA provisions and facilitating illegal clearances in lieu of bribes.”
Back in 2019, it came to light that the Omidyar Group was one of the donors to Forbidden Stories (FS), a dubious organisation launched with the underlying aim of effectuating regime changes and installing pliant governments in countries across the world that align with the left-liberal ideology and reinforce the primacy of the Left’s narrative.
FS was launched by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Freedom Voices Network. RSF is the same organisation that came up with a dishonest ‘Press Freedom Index‘ to malign India internationally and portray it as a country where journalists are targeted and persecuted for pursuing truth. However, its propaganda stood exposed when the list of journalists it claimed was imprisoned or killed in India to implicate the Centre belonged mostly to Congress-ruled states and Jammu and Kashmir, where journalists are notorious for being overground workers for terrorists.
The Omidyar Group donated to FS through a front organisation Luminate, whose Strategic Plan for 2018-2022 mentioned that “‘Illiberal democracies’ are emerging,” “Civic space is shrinking, and civil society is under attack,” “Rising populism is creating ruptures in historical party politics,” “Insular, nationalist perspectives are resonating with more people,” and “Communities are becoming more polarized among other things.
While the strategic plan and its animosity towards nationalism made its ideological orientations abundantly clear, it is important to note that the Omidyar Group funded a host of media organisations worldwide, mostly leftist globalist portals such as Scroll.in.
As per The Grayzone, Luminate donated to the Sundance Institute for producing films “used strategically to articulate pressing public issues and movement-building campaigns.” The Grayzone report states, “Among the films cited by Omidyar’s Luminate as a strategic success was The Last Men in Aleppo, an Oscar-nominated propaganda vehicle for the Syrian White Helmets that was produced by the Sundance Institute.”