To,
Ford Foundation,
New York, USA.
Sir,
I
am writing to you on behalf of AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA), a non-funded,
non-party organization working on the issue of fighting discrimination against
those affected by HIV/AIDS and those targeted as the high risk groups. Mr.
Jacob Gayle, the then head of the Ford Foundation’s global initiative on AIDS
was instrumental in funding Mr. Siddharth Dube’s book ‘No One Else’ published
by HarperCollins Publishers India in 2015. The said book contains aberrations
pertaining to ABVA’s work. It also attempts to hijack ABVA’s work in the name
of Siddhartha Gautam who was a member of ABVA for a brief period and violates
intellectual property rights of ABVA. Ford Foundation is jointly liable along
with the author and publisher of the said book for the moral, ethical and legal
responsibility of hijacking a non-funded group’s work for commercial purposes. Ford
Foundation also failed to exercise due-diligence into the credentials of the
author, Mr. Siddharth Dube before funding him for this project. The entire book
rides on the shoulder of work of other people.
A
copy of an email dated 26 January, 2016 and legal notice dated 29 February,
2016 sent to Mr. Dube in this regard are attached herewith for your perusal and
necessary action. These are also available at ABVA’s blog at:
Dr.
P.S. Sahni
Member,
AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan
