New Delhi, Sep 07: Income Tax (I-T) officials are conducting raids at the office of a leading think tank, Centre for Policy Research (CPR), on Wednesday. The raid is being conducted in multiple states including Haryana, Maharashtra and Gujarat over funding of more than 20 registered but non-recognised political parties.
CPR is a non-profit, non-partisan, independent institution dedicated to conducting research that contributes to high quality scholarship, better policies, and a more robust public discourse about the issues that impact life in India.
The CPR governing board is chaired by Meenakshi Gopinath, a political scientist who taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University and was the principal of Lady Ram College in New Delhi.
It was previously chaired by academician Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a prominent critic of the BJP government.
Yamini Aiyar, the company's president and CEO is a leading policy researcher who is also the daughter of Congress leader and former Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar.
Former foreign secretary Shyam Saran and IIM professor Rama Bijapurkar are among the board members.
"CPR receives grants from a variety of domestic and international sources, including foundations, corporate philanthropy, governments, and multilateral agencies," the think tank said, adding that "a full accounting of annual finances and grants" is available on the website.
The surprise action is understood to have been taken by the department on the recommendation of the Election Commission (EC) which recently struck off 87 entities from its list of RUPP after they were found non-existent during physical verification.
The poll panel had announced that it was taking action against more than 2,100 registered unrecognised political parties for flouting rules and election laws, including those related to filing of monetary contributions, failing to update their addresses and names of office-bearers.
It had said some of these parties were indulging in "serious" financial impropriety.