Neville Roy Singham dons many hats. The American tech millionaire, backer of Left-wing groups such as Code Pink and No Cold War and founder and chairman of IT consulting company ThoughtWorks is now at the centre of a raging political debate in India since an NYT probe unearthed his links to a pro-China influence campaign.
From Parliament to Twitter, Singham-financed news portal NewsClick remained the topic of debate and discussion on Monday as the investigation cemented India’s concerns that anti-national elements were hand-in-glove with foreign entities.
Two years ago, the Enforcement Directorate had red-flagged NewsClick for receiving funds worth Rs 38 crore from abroad, with authorities tracing the money trail to Singham. The BJP had then alleged that “anti-India” elements, in league with foreign forces, were “part of a conspiracy to demean the country and target the ruling Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government”.
However, the NYT probe has revealed not only the pro-China slant but also a complex web involving non-profit organisations, shell companies and activists — all at the tech mogul’s behest.
PERSONAL LIFE
Born on May 13, 1954, Neville Singham is the founder and chairman of ThoughtWorks, an IT consulting company that provides custom software, software tools and consulting services.
Singham’s father Achibald Wickrama Singham, a Sri Lankan political scientist, was critical of US interventions in communist Grenada.
In his youth, Singham was a member of League of Revolutionary Black Workers, a Black nationalist-Maoist group in Detroit. From 2001 to 2008, he was a strategic technical consultant for Huawei.
He married Jodie Evans — a former Democratic political adviser and the co-founder of Code Pink — in 2017 in a lavish ceremony that was attended by the likes of Amy Goodman, host of “Democracy Now!”; Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream; and V, the playwright formerly known as Eve Ensler, who wrote ‘The Vagina Monologues’.
Singham’s son works for Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, a Left-wing think tank.
LINKS UNDER SCANNER
Singham reportedly has an office in Shanghai which is shared with a Chinese propaganda firm. Both firms apparently share employees.
His financial contributions towards aiding Chinese propaganda have been routed through a complex web of shell companies and non-profits across the globe, the NYT probe has revealed.
Outfits linked to Singham apparently upload content on YouTube and post videos that recycle and echo each other’s content. This helps amplify Chinese state media.
He is also a donor to the Democratic Party in the US. As per details available, he has donated to Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Massachusetts and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
According to a January 2022 report by New Lines Magazine, Singham has channelled $65 million to a network of non-profits that deny Uyghur genocide in China. In November 2022, Intelligence Online revealed Singham funnelled money to groups lobbying against Western support for Ukraine.
VINDICATED, SAYS GOVT
The NYT probe has come as a shot in the arm for the Narendra Modi government which had come under severe criticism from the Opposition as well as media outlets when the ED had raided the premises of NewsClick.
On Monday, Union minister Anurag Thakur tore into the Congress, accusing it of being hand-in-glove with China and compromising India’s interests.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said: “These narratives that are put out by platforms like NewsClick and other platforms that are operating in concert are echoed almost blandly in a similar fashion by this political leader, Rahul Gandhi, who goes abroad and says exactly the same things-democracy is under danger, judiciary is compromised, EVMs are compromised. This is exactly the narrative that these platforms put out… This is a complex conspiracy. This is a network of operators being funded, being fanned by vested interests outside the country, who are opposed to India’s rise.”
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