BJP’s scare-mongering over foreign funds

A journalist isn’t generally expected to comment on news in which s/he figures as an actor. But I’m compelled to do so in respect of a report by India’s Intelligence Bureau, leaked to and widely covered in the media, which names me as part of a conspiracy by “foreign-funded” non-governmental organisations to “take down” development projects and hold back India’s progress.

The report has impelled the Prime Minister’s Office to write to all the ministries asking for the details of the NGOs working with them. The home ministry has initiated action against Greenpeace-India. One only hopes this isn’t a prelude to a campaign to discredit and muzzle NGOs, in order to ram through projects with harmful environmental and human consequences.

The report is essentially a figment of the IB’s paranoid imagination. It levels grave allegations against numerous NGOs and individuals. But it’s based on cock-and-bull stories, flimsy evidence and wild speculation about their “subversive links” especially with foreign-funded NGOs opposed to nuclear and coal-based projects and genetically modified (GM) crops.

The report’s basic premise is that the hundreds of Indian NGOs and thousands of activists who oppose these out of conviction have no mind or agency of their own; they must be instigated by ‘the foreign hand’.

The premise is fundamentally wrong. Nuclear power is deeply unpopular globally and in India, particularly post-Fukushima. The Indian government itself admits that burning fossil fuels like coal is the greatest driver of climate change, the gravest threat to humanity. Opposing nuclear power and coal while demanding a shift to renewable energy is the most sustainable pathway to prosperity. Thus, “taking down” environmentally destructive projects would be in the national interest!

The report fantastically claims, without any supporting calculation, that NGO activities inflict a loss on the economy equivalent to 2-3 percent of India’s GDP.

However, a far greater loss is wrought by environmental destruction and degradation. Even conservative sources like the World Bank estimate this, more credibly, at 5.7 percent of GDP. The Energy and Resources Institute, whose director RK Pachauri heads the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, estimates it at 7 to 10 percent of GDP – higher than India’s current growth rate!

So environmental NGOs perform a public service by reducing this loss. Instead of recognising this, the IB accuses them of forming “territorial networks” with “foreign-funded NGOs”, controlled by “one superior network” guided by groups like Greenpeace and “renowned activists”. It doesn’t cite an iota of evidence to support this conspiracy theory.

The report charges the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), which campaigns against the Koodankulam nuclear power station, with illegally accepting foreign funding. But income-tax authorities found no irregularities in the PMANE’s accounts. Its convenor SP Udayakumar even put all its transactions on a website. The PMANE emerged squeaky-clean.

The IB weaves another conspiracy theory. It says a German “contact” (Hermann Rainer Sonntag) sent Udayakumar an email with a map showing India’s nuclear sites and the contact details of 50 anti-nuclear activists, comprising “eminent persons including Praful Bidwai, Achin Vanaik, Admiral Ramdas (former Navy chief) …”

These maps are available on the websites of the Nuclear Power Corporation and Uranium Corporation. Udayakumar has known us anti-nuclear activists for years and didn’t need to get our contact details from Sonntag. He also denies receiving the email in question. The IB gives no evidence that he’s wrong.

The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (www.cndpindia.org), with which many of us are associated, was set up as a campaign organisation in 2000. It accepts no foreign, corporate or government funding. Greenpeace-India too is registered in India and gets 61 percent of its funds from local supporters. The rest is subject to strict official scrutiny.

The IB report similarly makes wild but unsubstantiated allegations against other activists who oppose rampant expansion of coal-based power generation and extractive industries, promotion of GM crops, destructive projects like POSCO and Vedanta Aluminium, and harebrained schemes like the interlinking of rivers.

Going by the information it contains, the IB report was commissioned by the Manmohan Singh government, which never hid its antipathy towards the opponents of the Koodankulam project and GM crops. Indeed, Singh repeatedly accused them of acting at the behest of western interests – without a shred of evidence.

The Singh government summarily deported or refused visas to more than half-a-dozen foreign nationals, including Sonntag. But if it had evidence against Sonntag, it should have prosecuted him.

To please the new government, the IB sycophantically plagiarised a part of an anti-NGO speech that Narendra Modi made in 2006. For good measure, it also added the names of Gujarat-based NGOs working for the rights of Adivasis, cattle-herders and people who face submergence from canals.

Remarkably, the report fails to show that any of the NGOs named acted illegally or breached norms under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. The FCRA’s origins lie in the Emergency (1975-77), imposed by Indira Gandhi out of her paranoid belief that “certain foreign powers” were out to destabilise her. The FCRA originally banned funding for political parties, trade unions, the media, etc. All applicants for a permit to receive foreign funding would have to be registered for at least three years and would be closely screened by the IB.

Getting an FCRA permit has never been easy, and usually takes two years or longer. Only 39,000 of India’s two million-plus NGOs have such permits. The FCRA was amended in 2010, restricting permits to five years and debarring groups from “political actions”, including “bandhs, hartals, rasta roko, rail roko, or jail bharo.” These are all nonviolent democratic forms of protest, recognised around the world as legitimate.

This rule can be used against any organisation which supports rights-based mobilisations of women, landless farmers, Dalits, religious minorities, or people affected by industrial, mining and irrigation projects. By contrast, all profit-making activities, even shady ones, are encouraged.

Having failed to find grounds for legal, procedurally sound action against NGOs under thr FCRA, the IB has resorted to spinning fairy-tales based on innuendos and guilt by association. The report was leaked to malign and discredit NGOs.

This is clearly linked to the government’s declared intention to fast-track industrial projects and placate Big Business by subverting environmental regulations. This reveals blatant double standards: hysterical opposition to genuine NGOs, but reliance on imported reactors and plans for 100 percent FDI in defence production.

Besides, millions of dollars have been poured into Sangh Parivar coffers by organisations like India Development and Relief Fund (US) and Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (UK). (See www.outlookindia.com/article/When-Are-Foreign-Funds-Okay-/291077)

Muzzling NGOs is unbecoming of a democracy. Self-confident democracies should encourage, indeed applaud, the involvement of citizens’ associations in social-political decision-making and development planning. Instead, India’s paranoid government bullies them.

This raises serious issues about the IB. It was set up to serve the colonial government, without a clear legal framework or charter of duties. After Independence, it continued to maintain close links with its British parent, the MI5. Recently released documents show that the IB cooperated with MI5 to spy on VK Krishna Menon, India’s high commissioner to the UK.

The IB has been abused by successive governments to further their narrow political agendas. This must end. The IB should be brought under parliamentary supervision in keeping with the practice in accountable democracies. This brooks no delay.

The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a researcher and rights activist based in Delhi. Email: prafulbidwai1@yahoo.co.in