Civil society groups urge Modi not to target NGOs

Members of the civil society on Friday wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the central government's crackdown on NGOs, a statement said.

"We are extremely uncomfortable about the kind of message the government is putting out about civil society organisations (CSO)" said Enakshi Ganguly, co-director of Haq.

"Whether all differences of opinion between government and CSOs or disagreements about paradigms of development can be reduced to anti-national, anti-development and anti-progress," she asked.

"It is precisely because of this extreme hostility and distrust that we have released the open letter to the prime minister, not only hoping for a response to the concerns raised but also to urge him to create the necessary space and mechanism for strengthening the relationship between government and CSOs."

Arguing that NGOs were ensuring that people get what is constitutionally and legally due to them, Paul Diwakar of Wada Na Toda Abhiyan said "the very fabric of democracy" was at stake.

"NGOs are at best representing the struggles and aspirations of the people and it is this partnership that is irking the vested interests," he said.

Asserting that CSOs were against the "arbitrary manner" in which the government was targeting NGOs, Satark Nagrik Sangathan's Anjali Bhardwaj said the government was "highly selective" about issues and was justifying itself on the unfounded grounds that the entire NGO sector has become a law unto itself.

"This is a sector that is as regulated as any other and there are many agencies not only monitoring the NGOs but constantly reminding us of the many laws and the various rules that we must conform to," she said.

She went on to add that in the last one year, the major agencies mandated to promote transparency and accountability such as the Central Information Commission, Central Vigilance Commission and Lokpal have either remained headless or were simply not constituted at all.