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Related: About this forumAfter months of tussle with activists, India suspends Greenpeace
After months of tussle with activists, India suspends Greenpeace
Since it came to power last year, along with legal changes in environmental policy, the Narendra Modi government has restricted grassroots and environmental activism on an unprecedented scale. Just yesterday, the Ministry of Home Affairs blocked Greenpeace India from receiving foreign funding for six months and froze the nonprofits bank accounts, allegedly because the organization has prejudicially affected the public interests and economic interests of the country, in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, or FCRA. Samit Aich, executive director of Greenpeace India said that the Home Ministrys repeated moves to restrict the nonprofits funding were clear attempts to silence criticism and dissent. Divya Raghunandan, the groups program director, adds, The real reason is our campaigns that have been irritants for the cozy nexus between government and some companies.
On May 3, 2014, a report by Indias Intelligence Bureau that accused foreign-funded nonprofits of stalling development was leaked to the media. Addressed to the prime ministers office, it said the nonprofits served as tools for foreign policy interests of Western governments by agitating against nuclear and coal-fired power plants across the country.
The report attacked Greenpeace in particular, but also the Indian environmental and human rights organizations Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, the Narmada Bachao Andolan and Amnesty India. It named certain renowned civil-rights activists as being anti-nationalists and part of a green lobby that had slowed Indias GDP by two or three percent. The report called them threats to national security. The daily paper The Indian Express stated that much of the report was copied directly from a 2006 speech Modi gave at a book launch when he was the chief minister of the state of Gujarat.
Shortly after the report was leaked, the Home Ministry blocked the flow of overseas funds to Greenpeace India. Raghunandan says this is because Greenpeaces campaigns have questioned illegality and harassment in mining areas. When they dont like the message, they shoot the messenger.
Since it came to power last year, along with legal changes in environmental policy, the Narendra Modi government has restricted grassroots and environmental activism on an unprecedented scale. Just yesterday, the Ministry of Home Affairs blocked Greenpeace India from receiving foreign funding for six months and froze the nonprofits bank accounts, allegedly because the organization has prejudicially affected the public interests and economic interests of the country, in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, or FCRA. Samit Aich, executive director of Greenpeace India said that the Home Ministrys repeated moves to restrict the nonprofits funding were clear attempts to silence criticism and dissent. Divya Raghunandan, the groups program director, adds, The real reason is our campaigns that have been irritants for the cozy nexus between government and some companies.
On May 3, 2014, a report by Indias Intelligence Bureau that accused foreign-funded nonprofits of stalling development was leaked to the media. Addressed to the prime ministers office, it said the nonprofits served as tools for foreign policy interests of Western governments by agitating against nuclear and coal-fired power plants across the country.
The report attacked Greenpeace in particular, but also the Indian environmental and human rights organizations Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, the Narmada Bachao Andolan and Amnesty India. It named certain renowned civil-rights activists as being anti-nationalists and part of a green lobby that had slowed Indias GDP by two or three percent. The report called them threats to national security. The daily paper The Indian Express stated that much of the report was copied directly from a 2006 speech Modi gave at a book launch when he was the chief minister of the state of Gujarat.
Shortly after the report was leaked, the Home Ministry blocked the flow of overseas funds to Greenpeace India. Raghunandan says this is because Greenpeaces campaigns have questioned illegality and harassment in mining areas. When they dont like the message, they shoot the messenger.
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After months of tussle with activists, India suspends Greenpeace (Original Post)
GliderGuider
Apr 2015
OP
MisterP
(23,730 posts)1. this is pretty bog-standard for "Third-Worldism": any green talk is a plot to undermine
the national economy--you hear this from everyone from Mahatir Mohammad to Dilma Rousseff; a few decades ago it was human-rights talk that was the "stalking horse" for Western takeover, if you believed Videla and Suharto
Nihil
(13,508 posts)2. Surely not in that progressive hub of all-round goodness that is known as "India"?
That beacon of environmental goodness, that shining light of equality, that land of
religious freedom whose entire national philosophy is so self-effacting & humble?