Hi,

I have replied on the thread on meta. Copying that content here for reference:

Anirudh has already mentioned most of the points I also wanted to say. (Check here: https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2019-July/014215.html) I will add a few more things here.

WMF is very very keen on all kinds of legal compliance. The recent example is the "Germany court order". Surprisingly, possibly for the first time in Wikipedia history, all the relevent content was WIPED out from Wikipedia within a day of the court order where only one person was affected by the content. Compared to that, here in India, FCRA issue is affecting thousands of organisations in a serious way and AFFCOM is still not able to understand the FCRA compliance issue. (Maybe, compared to Indian languages, German language is better understood by concerned people!!)

By the way, What was the support given by WMF/AFFCOM to WMIN in the FCRA matters? Have they provided any consultant or legal help to WMIN. Or even some high level contacts in the concerned Government office to put up our case further.

It will also be interesting to know if by any chance, CIS looses FCRA, (I sincerely wish that does not happen anytime) AFFCOM/WMF will remove their affiliation? Read the WMF news article here: https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/04/11/a-german-court-forced-us-to-remove-part-of-a-wikipedia-articles-history-heres-what-that-means/

Indian Wikipedian community is very very keen on expenditure, especially wherever they feel that some wrong expenditure is made (not just by Indian organisation but even when WMF money is spent) They become very very concerned about it and become very vocal. Mail thread goes on for months asking for justificaiton of such expenditure.(eg. check here: https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2018-July/013400.html) Hardly anyone from WMF/AFFCOM comment on it. Compared to that, when India chapter is not spending any money and doing all zero budget activities, what could be the problem with it for the community or AFFCOM or WMF. Actually they should appriciate and should be happy about saving lots of money and still doing activities.

The closure of India chapter topic comes up again and again and some lengthy discussions happen on it. I am referring to one such mail thread a few years back and specificaly want WMF people to read my comment that time in a reply to Gerard Meijssen. Please check it out here: https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2014-September/011563.html

Now that AFFCOM is showing so much concern about the India activities, it will be better if they can tell us (the stake holders in this- Indian Wikipedians, volunteers, current and past WMIN EC members and general WMIN members) the comparision of performance of affiliates in India namely WMIN and CIS-A2K. What is the expenditure on various activities, paid staff etc etc. And give us a clear understanding of where the real objection is. I suppose this should be with reference to the contract between WMF and WMIN. I read the contract document again some time back and could hardly see any possible serious violation of the contract that AFFCOM is referring to.

Regards

-Sudhanwa

On Thu, Jul 18, 2019 at 5:13 PM Anirudh S. Bhati <anirudhsbh@gmail.com> wrote:

For now I am not going to get into other issues, but would like to get clarification on the following:

On Thu, Jul 18, 2019 at 6:20 PM Chris Koerner <ckoerner@wikimedia.org> wrote:

Wikimedia India was first recognized as a chapter in 2011. In 2015, it
experienced difficulties meeting chapter agreement obligations.
Working with the Affiliations Committee and the Foundation, the
chapter developed a plan of action and returned to good standing by
2017. However, between 2017 and 2019 the chapter was unable to secure
a license to act as a fiduciary organization, and is not currently
legally registered as a charity in India to accept funding from the
Foundation. The Foundation and Affiliations Committee both hope that
this licensing and registration can be secured, and that the chapter
will again be eligible for recognition.

AFAIK, the Wikimedia Chapter (Wikimedia India) *is* registered as a charitable society under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act. Therefore, it *is* a fiduciary organization acting in public interest. I would like to hear a clarification on your claims above.

Further, my understanding is that the Chapter has been unable to renew/secure its permissions under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, which prevents it from receiving funds from foreign sources, including the Foundation. This is not a situation unique to Wikimedia India, as more than 20,000 NGOs nationally faced cancellations of their licenses last year due to reasons that have largely to do with politics rather than compliance related issues.

https://www.firstpost.com/india/fcra-licences-of-20000-ngos-cancelled-act-being-used-as-weapon-to-silence-organisations-3181560.html

If the inability of Wikimedia india to secure these permissions is one of the primary reasons for de-recognition, as a founding member of Wikimedia India and as someone who is largely an external observer, it appears to me that the Foundation is choosing to punish the chapter for not having the political clout to retain its license. For most of its existence, the Wikimedia Chapter has been a volunteer-run body with limited expertise in public policy. Can you please clarify whether the Foundation has extended support to the Chapter in form of, for example, contracting a government relations specialists to help renew/secure their FCRA license?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Anirudh
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