Current Events
Democracy, India Style:
No Dissent
No Criticism
No Activism
RAVEENA KAUR AULAKH
What is the price of dissent in India today?
Greenpeace is slowly finding out, one clash at a time.
A very public, ongoing battle between the powerful Indian government and the environmental organization that began a year ago with the release of an intelligence report singling out Greenpeace as a “threat,” made headlines again when a campaigner was denied entry into the country.
Australian Aaron Gray-Block was put on a flight to Malaysia last week after he landed in Bangalore because his name figured in a “blacklist.”
There has been no let-up to attacks on Greenpeace, said Priya Pillai, a Greenpeace climate campaigner in New Delhi.
“For the past one whole year, it feels like we have been constantly firefighting.”
The organization’s work is suffering, she said.
And the situation isn’t unique to Greenpeace.
Hundreds of NGOs and charities -- environmental and other -- have been under the government radar since last June, when the Intelligence Bureau leaked a report accusing several foreign-funded NGOs of stalling infrastructure projects.
The government has also restricted direct transfers of foreign donations.
The report named several activists and organizations but singled out Greenpeace as a “threat to national economic security.” The report also said the global organization was using its “exponential” growth in terms of “reach, impact, volunteers and media influence” to create obstacles in India’s energy plans.
Since then, Greenpeace India’s offices have undergone inspections, its bank accounts have been frozen and at least three staffers, including Pillai, have been refused permission to either enter or leave India.
In May, Greenpeace feared it would have to close its offices in India, where it has 340 staffers.
(Just days later, a court ordered the government to let the organization access the majority of its funds, which it required to stay open.)
“It seems like the government is using (Greenpeace) as an example for others,” said Madhuresh Kumar of the National Alliance of People’s Movements in New Delhi. “Greenpeace is a brand; it is big. To crack down on Greenpeace is to send a message that if we can take on Greenpeace, we can also reach you.”
It’s a way of controlling NGOs and charities, he said.
“The government doesn’t want opposition.”
Among other things, Greenpeace has opposed coal mining projects in forest areas, with its most recent campaign in Mahan, in the populous state of Madhya Pradesh, successfully stalling a coal mine.
Pillai has been with that campaign.
The organization is also fighting air pollution -- the World Health Organization recently named New Delhi as the world’s worst city for air pollution -- and coal projects that threaten tribal people. Typically, this means opposing projects that also expand needed electricity infrastructure in the country.
The development agenda of the Indian government -- led by the nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- involves building new mines and coal- and nuclear-fired power stations, which Greenpeace vehemently opposes.
There have been protests and ordinary people have been angry with how NGOs and charities are being treated, said Kumar.
It doesn’t seem to have deterred the government.
Recently, the Indian government revoked the licences of nearly 9,000 foreign-funded non-profits for allegedly failing to disclose financial sources. Highly respected organizations like 350.org and Sierra Club have been added to watch lists, according to reports.
India’s home ministry is now, reportedly, turning its attention to charities like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and even the Ford Foundation, prompting the U.S. ambassador to India, Richard Verma, to express concern.
Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director for Human Rights Watch, pointed out that this clampdown began, in a way, with the previous government by the Congress party.
“It had expressed the view that community protests against development projects that were supported by NGOs might sometimes be motivated by foreign donor interests,” she said.
By the time the intelligence agencies’ report was leaked last June, a new government had been elected.
The present government “has pursued a policy of increased restrictions on both NGOs and funders,” said Ganguly.
While Greenpeace, a mammoth organization with offices in 40 countries and many millions of dollars in donor money, has been able to deal with the clampdown, it hasn’t been so easy for smaller NGOs.
“We can’t afford lawyers … if something goes wrong,” said the director of an environmental NGO in Nagpur, western India, who did not want to be identified.
It has eight people on staff and a dozen volunteers.
He said he knows of NGOs that are being asked to explain why they shouldn’t be shut down.
Meanwhile, Pillai, who was not allowed to fly to England in early January, said it’s tough for her to forget that incident.
On January 11, she was supposed to fly to London to brief British MPs on her work. But Pillai, who had travelled internationally for work several times, wasn’t allowed on the plane.
“I was told I couldn’t leave … that there were orders from high-ups.”
A court in New Delhi has since directed the government to remove her name from a list of “suspicious persons” and expunge the incident from her records.
It’s been months, but some people haven’t stopped calling her anti-national, she said. “You are fighting for the rights of the people of your country, saving the environment, and you are being called anti-national . . . it’s humiliating.”
[Courtesy: The Toronto Star. Edited for sikhchic.com]
June 15, 2015