“Mahatma Gandhi Candle March Packaged as Guerilla Warfare!” internet entrepreneur Sanjeev Bikhchandani has rued late Sunday.

Straight talk like this is rare.

Bikhchandani, an IIM-A all-time distinguished alumnus awardee, and philanthropist, has published an emotional blog against shabby treatment in a banner-headlined story that Indian Express had already written in April 2011. It must be read in its entirety.

But the long and short is that Bikhachandani gave what’s being seen as a princely sum of Rs 50,000 [by cheque, naturally] to Arvind Kejriwal way back in January 2011. But as Kejriwal has now morphed from an RTI pup to an anti-corruption terrier, this money is being packaged as seed money for guerrilla warfare against India’s entire political class!

A similar question mark has been placed against Ratan Tata, Narayana Murthy, Ramesh Sobti, Vikram Lal, Nimesh Kampani, and Vallabh Bhansali.

Quick links to pieces published in April last year and November 4, 2012:

http://epaper.mailtoday.in/epaperhome.aspx?issue=4112012
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ceos-banks-firms-in-list-of-donors-put-up-on-website-of-hazare-movement/776412

Now, why was Bikhchandani impressed by a then unknown activist? Here’s an extract of the story and how few will dare to be within a mile of Kejriwal now that the vilification can only get sharper:

“In January 2011 I had, upon the request of a friend, donated fifty thousand rupees to an NGO that was organizing a candlelight march to India Gate on January 30 to protest against corruption in public life. The founder of the NGO was Arvind Kejriwal @arvindkejriwal7 who with his IIT, IRS, RTI and Magasaysay award background seemed to be a good person to support. The cause too was right.

As things turned out, this effort by the NGO blossomed into the agitation that we now know as India Against Corruption.

The story about who had donated had actually been broken by the Indian Express over eighteen months ago when the Anna Hazare movement was at its peak and the famous Jantar Mantar fast was on. The Indian Express has been consistent in its opposition to the methods adopted by Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare. The information for the Indian Express @IndianExpress story had been obtained from the website of India Against Corruption @MovementIAC.

Clearly the Mail Today story is peddling old wine in old bottles. One option before me is to bury my head in the sand and do nothing. But my photograph appears in the esteemed company of Shri NR Narayana Murthy and Shri Ratan Tata @RNTata2000 , among others, and in a front page story at that.

More important, the imputation of Saurabh Shukla, the writer, is that we are bank rolling a guerilla war against the entire Indian political class.

This leaves me, and perhaps those named in the Mail Today piece, between a rock and a hard place.

If I state that my donation (of Rs 50,000, or GBP 580 as per today’s conversion rate, by the way, and dating back to January 24, 2011 when Kejriwal wasn’t famous and Anna Hazare wasn’t a part of the movement just as he isn’t currently) was for a specific activity – to do a candlelight march on January 30, 2011 at India Gate, and that event wasn’t intended to personally attack members of the Indian Cabinet or leading politicians, I will be accused by some people of being chicken.

If I say that I didn’t have the foggiest idea what really was on Kejriwal’s mind longer term when he came to visit us via a pan-IIT referral for undertaking a candle-light march in the memory of Mahatma Gandhi, I would be asked whether or not I am against corruption.

My position on the matter is pretty simple. I donate on occasion for certain causes that I think are important and to people and organisations I believe in. So in the past I have donated to St. Stephen’s College, #IIM Ahmedabad, St. Columba’s School, Cankids, The PM’s Relief Fund @PMOIndia , and my pet project The Ashoka University among others. For the record, what I gave the Public Cause Research Foundation is less than 1% of my total philanthropic contributions.

The fact that I did not give more to India Against Corruption after the small initial amount twenty two months ago means that while I am against corruption, I am not sure that I am totally comfortable with the way events have unfolded since then. I am confused about the appropriateness of the methods adopted. Yet I admire Kejriwal for his courage, his persistence, for what he has done for the RTI, his personal honesty, his sacrifices. I just don't know if his methods are right. And I am not sure about the probity of some of those who are with him and I am not sure if all the allegations he makes are correct.

I am not someone, who can predict perfectly the form and shape that efforts and people will take in the future. I doubt if even Pythia, the Oracle of Apollo, would have known what lay ahead for Kejriwal in January, 2011.”

Are the notables mentioned in this new attack on Kejriwal’s funding pawns of a larger game? I think they are.

I like the way Bikhchandani has put it, who I must add as disclaimer is my senior from St Stephen’s:

“Articles focusing on donors who work in the corporate sector and who normally shy away from politics will discourage them and others of their kind from donating more. Also many in the NGO world believe that private capital is evil and this will drive a wedge between them and Kejriwal. Therefore you get at Kejriwal in two ways.”

Why should a cheque of Rs 50,000 find its way back into banner headlines packaged with a sinister motive to launch guerrilla warfare against our present ruling class?

Would you dare to get into a firing line of donating to an inconvenient political force if Ratan Tata, Narayana Murthy, Ramesh Sobti, Vikram Lal, Nimesh Kampani, Vallabh Bhansali and Sanjeev Bikhchandani stand embarrassed?

(Views are personal. Tweets @therohitbansal)