Home minister says didn't get info on IB report; Greenpeace rubbishes allegations

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday denied having received any report from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which is reported to have said foreign-funded non-government organisations (NGOs) were “negatively impacting” economic development in the country and Greenpeace, an international NGO, was a “threat to national economic security”.

“I have no information. IB gives us daily briefings,” Singh told reporters outside Parliament House.

According to the Indian Express, IB had sent a report (dated June 3) to the Prime Minister’s Office calling Greenpeace a threat to national economic security.

Greenpeace India countered the allegations and said this was a “conscious attempt to crush and stifle opposing voices in the civil society”. “How can this be a threat to national economic security? We are clearly a threat to powerful corporate interests that seek to bulldoze clearances at the cost of millions of people and the environment… We believe that this report is designed to muzzle and silence civil society who raise their voices against injustices to people and the environment by asking uncomfortable questions about the current model of growth,” said Abhishek Pratap, senior campaigner at Greenpeace.

Clearing the rift over its funding, Greenpeace said the body was funded by individual donors in the country and does not accept any donation from corporate or government entities. “In 2013-14, Greenpeace India raised around Rs 20 crore from over three lakh individual supporters in India. More than 60 per cent of our funds come from Indian supporters. Foreign grants form 37 per cent of our funds,” said Greenpeace.

IB has reportedly accused Greenpeace of violating the provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act of 2010 (FCRA) and also financing “sympathetic studies” at educational institutions such as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi.

The alleged report said Greenpeace was expanding its activities to oppose coal-fired power plants and related mining. “It is using foreign funds to create protest movements under Coal Network umbrella at prominent coal block and coal-fired power plant locations in India.”

Greenpeace contended, “It is a pity that over 60 years of independence could not ensure electricity in every home…Opposing coal doesn’t amount to opposing the country’s economic growth. The government should ensure economic development of more than 1.2 billion Indians, and not of coal and nuclear energy lobbyists.”