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Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Friday said the recent “crackdown” on non-government organisations (NGOs) was in national interest and the government was unconcerned about “what the US said”.
He was responding to US Ambassador to India Richard Verma’s statement criticising the recent government action against NGOs, cancelling of the Foreign Contributory Regulatory Authority (FCRA) registration of Greenpeace, and putting 16 donors, including the Ford Foundation, on a security watchlist. The Union home ministry has also cancelled the registration of 8,975 NGOs for allegedly violating norms.
In an editorial titled ‘India Chilling Crackdown’, The New York Times on Thursday criticised the Indian government’s moves. It related the steps against Ford Foundation to its grants to the Sabrang Trust, and its founder social activist Teesta Setalvad, who has worked for the rights of the 2002 Gujarat riot victims and tried to initiate legal action against “Prime Minister Narendra Modi for enabling the violence”.
The article concluded: “Mr Modi has an ambitious agenda to lift millions of people out of poverty and play a bigger role on the world stage. He almost certainly cannot attract the investment he needs while imposing a repressive social order and devaluing India’s greatest asset, a robust democracy.”
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In response, Rijiju told The Indian Express: “There is no witch-hunt against NGOs and there were laxities in implementing laws on the government’s part during the previous regime.”
In a recent interview with TIME magazine, Prime Minister Modi reiterated his government’s commitment to India’s democracy, and claimed it to be in the DNA of Indians.
On the charge against Ford Foundation, which has provided $500 million to Indian organisations since 1952, Rijiju said the funding organisation was responsible for the manner in which the funds were used. “They are liable. They are the source. Ford should have put the stipulation (on Teesta Setalvad’s NGOs)… that money must be used for the purpose for which it has been granted. Do not divert the money for a particular purpose,” Rijiju told The Indian Express.
The minister also defended his government’s action against internationally reputed environment advocacy organisation Greenpeace, which has been brought to the verge of a shutdown in India through a freeze of its bank accounts.
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Samit Aich, the executive director of Greenpeace India, has said the move by the Indian government is unprecedented. “In 42 years of our operations in more than 50 countries, I don’t think we have faced such a situation,” he said.
The NGO has let its employees know that it has funds for paying salaries and carrying out operations only for a month.
Asked specifically about Greenpeace by, Rijiju told The Indian Express: “I don’t want to name anybody. If anybody violates law, it is incumbent upon the Government of India to act. And it is also incumbent upon NGOs to follow norms. The responsibility and onus is on both. We should also not act on anything which is ultra vires (beyond its power) and the NGOs should also not act in a way that is illegal.”
He added the international criticism “did not matter” as what the government was doing was within the law and in national interest.
