Greenpeace India has taken on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government for blocking the transfer of funds from Greenpeace International, its international affiliate organisation, without any formal intimation to the non-governmental organisation (NGO).
In a release, the NGO said, "On June 23, 2014, we had requested for a financial transfer from Greenpeace International, which transferred the money the very next day. On June 30, we were denied the money on the grounds that our bank, IDBI, had received instructions from the Reserve Bank of India that it would not be able to transfer the money unless it received a go-ahead from the Ministry of Home affairs."
The release quoted its executive director, Samit Aich, as saying, "We have received no intimation whatsoever from the government, either to review our FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) compliance or informing us of this move." The NGO said it would soon file an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005, seeking clarification from the home ministry in this regard.
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Greenpeace India was named in a leaked Intelligence Bureau (IB) report, which blamed NGOs for working against national interest and effectively pulling down the economy through their environmental protests and campaigns. So far, the government has not reacted publicly to the report, though news reports have quoted sources in the government as saying the NDA government has restricted foreign fund transfers to a few NGOs listed in the IB report.
Quoting Aich, the Greenpeace report said, "The leak followed a media blitzkrieg. Yet, all along, Greenpeace did not receive any official communication from the ministry. We repeatedly tried to engage with the ministry, but to no avail. Instead of discreetly leaking malicious reports in the media, it is the moral duty of the ministry to answer us, for the sake of transparency."
