The mainstream media is known to have a covert understanding with Christian missionaries and other dubious foreign funded NGOs that prevents them from reporting accurately regarding matters involving them. But now, it is not secret anymore. NDTV has partnered with a Christian evangelical organisation, World Vision, for apparently a ‘hunger-free India’.
It is widely acknowledged, even by Christian evangelicals themselves, that the larger objective of charity and humanitarian work by missionary organisations is ultimately the conversion of people to the Christian faith. And yet, NDTV, which has great issues with Gharwapsi, sees no compunction in partnering with such an organisation.
NDTV also seeks donations from the public regarding the same and it is safe to say that a healthy proportion of the donated amount will be used to fund conversions to the Christian faith.
#HungerFreeIndia | “About 6 lakh children under the age of 5 are at the risk of facing death as per the Lancet report”: Madhav Bellamkonda, National Director, World Vision India
— NDTV (@ndtv) May 17, 2020
(In partnership with @WVIndia)
Donate here: https://t.co/oFfzG9ICWf pic.twitter.com/x1o2AMcFXL
World Vision India is a branch of World Vision, which is an explicitly evangelical organisation. The website of WV says, “World Vision is an international partnership of Christians whose mission is to follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God.”
The mission statement of WV includes, “Witness to Jesus Christ by life, deed, word and sign that encourages people to respond to the Gospel.” It also says, “Public Awareness that leads to informed understanding, giving, involvement and prayer.” The consolidated financial statement to makes it clear that it is a Christian religious organisation and its purposes are religious as well.
For its part, WV claims that it does not engage in proselytising. They claim that they “do not proselytize or work with those who insist on proselytism. Proselytism takes place whenever assistance is offered on condition that people must listen or respond to a message or as an inducement to leave one and join another part of the Christian church.”
However, World Vision does admit that “At the same time, World Vision shares the Church’s commitment to disciple followers of Jesus Christ who bear witness to the Gospel by life, deed, word and sign, with the goal of encouraging people to respond to the Gospel. We do this through the life of service that we lead, the deeds of Christian love we perform, the words that we share about our faith and the signs of prayers answered as we visibly and concretely improve the lives of others.”
In simple words, what WV wishes to say is that although they do not make their charity work conditional on the acceptance of the aid, they do encourage the recipients to convert to the Christian faith. Intriguingly enough, World Vision India provides no inclination about their evangelical roots.
World Vision India makes a deliberate effort to portray itself as just another ‘humanitarian’ organisation even though it definitely is not. The differences in the description of the vision between World Vision and World Vision India makes it abundantly clear that there has been a conscious effort to hide their missionary roots.
There are far more sinister designs at work here. Iain Buchanan, author of “Armies of God: Study in Militant Christianity”, claims that such missionary organisations are employed by the US government to pursue their foreign policy objectives.
In an interview to DNA, he said, “…there is no doubt at all that US strategy makes deliberate (and somewhat cynical) use of Christian agencies in pursuit of foreign policy — and that the distinction between the religious and the secular is deliberately blurred in the process. There are over 600 US-based evangelical groups, some as big as large corporations, and between them they constitute a vast and highly organised network of global influence, purposefully targeting non-Christians, and connecting and subverting every sector of life in the process.”
Buchanan also asserted that World Vision is effectively an extended arm of the US Department of State. He said, “Most of the major evangelical corporations (like World Vision, Campus Crusade, Youth with a Mission, and Samaritan’s Purse) operate in partnership with the US government in its pursuit of foreign policy goals. World Vision, which is effectively an arm of the State Department, is perhaps the most notable example of this. There is also the benefit of a custom-built legislation, with the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 providing necessary sanction to bring errant nations into line.”
Under such circumstances, NDTV declaring a partnership between itself and World Vision India even for the sake of something that appears noble on the face of it is a cause for extreme concern. It is a legitimate question on whether media organisations should have the liberty to ally with international religious organisations that have intimate links with the US Government.
However, it cannot be denied that it severely compromises the ethical claim to neutrality and integrity that any media network claims to have. Fortunately for the NDTV, it does not suffer from any such misgivings. Neither is it neutral, nor does it pretend to have any integrity. The co-founder of NDTV and executive chairperson, Prannoy Roy, is accused of fraud and is being investigated by the CBI.
In addition to this, NDTV has taken an anti-India stand on numerous occasions in the past, especially on Kashmir and during conflict with Pakistan. The news network is also a purveyor of fake news and often, it peddles propaganda to target Hindutva oriented organisations.
