The government today blocked foreign fundings to Greenpeace India with immediate effect by suspending its licence for six months and served a notice to the NGO asking why its registration should not be cancelled.
The NGO has been charged under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), with the home ministry citing serious charges of its involvement in encouraging 'anti-development" campaigns across the country.
The government has also frozen all the 7 accounts operated by Greenpeace.
Reacting to the above suspension Samit Aich, executive director Greenpeace India said the company had not yet heard about the order directly from the government but believe it is a deliberate effort to cull down on the company.
Aich said the NGO would challenge the order in court point by point after receiving it. He is confident of having a strong case. Even the two previous judgements had been ruled in their favour, he added.
He said around 70% of Green Peace is funded by individual Indian citizens and only 30% comes from international grands largely from Green Peace International.
Below is the verbatim transcript.
Q: Let me start by asking you about your reaction to this order. I understand that this order has been dispatched to you by the Ministry of Home Affairs on April 9. You have heard nothing from the government so far?
A: Well no that is true. This has been also a trend since June 2014 where the news of Green peace comes on the news, it doesn't come to Greenpeace in the first place and this is a deliberate effort to cull down on Greenpeace. These are all tactics which are very dirty if I may say so, not very professional at all and we have to wait for this order to come. I am sure it is going to come very soon and we will study that order and give a point by point rebuttal.
Q: I know you will have to study that order when it comes to you but let me ask you for clarifications on what the order alleges and the order alleges several violations under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). In fact if I look at it, it alleges about almost eight or nine violations under the FCRA which had to do with under reporting of your finances, it has to do with wilful suppression of information, it has to do with shifting your offices and activities from one state to one another without the required or requisite approvals and I am not going into the details because you clearly don't have the order yet but as I pointed out, there are about eight or nine violations under the FCRA that this order talks about. How will you respond to all of this and I understand that there have been investigations, on site investigation of your accounts between 24 and 27 September. What was your response then?
A: Well if I remember correctly it is about six months back they had some sixteen observations all of which we have responded and refuted point by point when we responded back. It is also important for you and our viewers to note that when our writ petition was admitted to the high court in Delhi when funds our were blocked way back in June, that time the judgement came to our favour and the learned judge at that point in time had clearly observed that there was no material evidence against green peace international at that point in time because of which our funds were blocked. So, I don't know what this new order is, I am sure we will study it point by point, we will give a point by point rebuttal once it comes to us but al this can be refuted. These are under the FCRA law, they are all technicalities. I must also say that FCRA law in this country is purposefully kept a bit open ended and draconian in nature to use it to their advantage when they want to go after a certain organisation like they are going after Greenpeace and all of that needs to be challenged and I am sure we will challenge it point by point. Like I said I would like to see the order and I am sure we will be given a chance to respond in time but these attacks on Green peace certainly does not seem to be very gracious in nature for a government which is so powerful and whose job is to ensure that all voice are heard and all uncomfortable voices are not culled in the way Greenpeace is being culled currently.
Q: I want to ask you and I want to get your response to the other allegation the government is making that you have been carrying out anti-development campaigns in India, that you have been working against the national economic security of this country and to my mind the final straw seems to have been the Greenpeace testimony to the UK government. Do you believe that that was in a sense the final nail in the coffin so to speak?
A: Well I don't know. Like I said only the government or the ministry of home affairs (MHA) may be in a position to respond to that but like I correctly said, we have been raising some pertinent questions. Our campaigns in the jungles of Mahan which eventually by the way the same government's Ministry of Environment's and Forests have agreed with us they are inviolate forest and they cannot be therefore cannot be destroyed but we have been asking some very pertinent questions and that is making uncomfortable not just the government but also some stake holders or some corporations who are very much interested seeing Greenpeace being culled or being destroyed. We will like I said, this is a malicious campaign, this thing about development and economic growth is intellectual conversation which the government should engage with. Development and economic growth is it for few people or is it for large parts of the country for people who have no access to electricity, no access to clean water, safe air-the campaigns we are running and we are raising some pertinent environmental questions and we are not raising anything so if that is coming in the way of countries' development, we need to have a more intellectual debate on the definition of development and the government should engage with NGOs including NGOs like Greenpeace.
Q: What is the legal strategy going to be? You had approached the Delhi High Court earlier, the government has now issued show cause notice asking why your registration in India should not be cancelled. As of now it has been suspended and your bank accounts have been frozen and you are not allowed to bring in any more money into this country. What is your legal strategy going to be?
A: It is also important for you and your viewers to know that a good 70 percent of Greenpeace India is funded by individual citizens, Indian like you and me who give you small sums of money to keep us going. 30 percent comes from international grants largely from Greenpeace International. We will study the order, I am sure we will have a good chance to defend our position. We will of course go to the courts and make a case for what is happening. The previous two judgements have come in our favour – foreign funds for the FCRA blockage and second one for the Priya Pillai case. So, we do think we have a strong case but let us wait and see and we will certainly approach the courts to get relief because this is just not good for democracy.
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