Current Events
India Moves To Ban Environment NGO Greenpeace
NEWS REPORTS
New Delhi, India
Taking note of the fact that the British Parliament has invited Greenpeace India to testify against the Indian Government in a formal hearing, the Government of India has moved with lightning speed to ban the environment NGO in India in an unabashed attempt to muzzle it and prevent its testimony.
India’s Home Ministry, while terming Greenpeace India “a threat to national economic security”, has frozen the bank accounts of the organisation by applying the country’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
All seven accounts of the organisation in IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank have been frozen with immediate effect.
The NGO has also been served a show-cause notice asking why its registration should not be cancelled. Security agencies such as the Indian Intelligence Bureau in their reports to the country's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had recommended cancellation of its FCRA registration.
Stating that foreign contributions received by Greenpeace India had prejudicially affected the public and the economic interest of the country in violation of the Section 12 (4)(f)(iii) and Section 12(4)(f)(ii) of the FCRA, the government said it also amounted to violation of the conditions of grant of registration certificate.
The Central Government suspended the registration of the organisation, including its branches and units, under the FCRA, for 180 days beginning Thursday, April 9, 2015. The organisation can make a representation in this regard within 30 days.
Declaring that Greenpeace was adversely impacting the national interest and many of its activities could be prejudicial to public interest, the Home Ministry has also taken note of the United Kingdom’s interest in Greenpeace India operations.
Also, Indian government agencies claim that in the past couple of years, several UK nationals, including cyber experts and activists, had visited the NGO’s offices in India.
[Courtesy: Tribune. Edited for sikhchic.com]
April 11, 2015
Conversation about this article
1: Harsaran Singh (Indonesia), April 12, 2015, 9:10 AM.
The Modi election campaign of 2014 was one of the biggest and costliest ever in Indian election history. Most of the funding for this came from the corporate bigwigs of India who knew that change in the India political landscape was in the offing. After Modi assumed power, these corporate honchos want their pound of flesh in terms of ease of doing business and a liberal government which ignores environmental and social impacts while giving permissions for setting up large industries. Under the same agenda, the Modi government is trying hard to enact a new land reform bill which, if examined closely, is damning for the agricultural and social sector. In this bill the government has waved off most of the checks and& balances while issuing licenses, which means that any and all kinds of land can be taken over for commercial purposes, irrespective of whether it is an agricultural or tribal land or otherwise. With most of the political opposition wiped out in the last general elections, it is organizations such as Greenpeace which are a real thorn in the back of corporate greed. They have started with Greenpeace and the others will be next on their list.