On March 23, Greenpeace International transferred another donation to Greenpeace India's FCRA account. This time though, the money was not credited even after several days. We asked IDBI, the bank concerned, what the reason for the delay was, and after much evasion and hmm and hawing, it became clear that the MHA had again blocked this transfer. ON what grounds, we asked the bank, as the Delhi High Court has already ruled on this in January, in what seems to be an identical case. Nothing had changed, we had not been charged with any FCRA violation. As has happened often over the last year, we were given no answer, just a shrug and a reference to the “government.”
So on April 8, Greenpeace India wrote to the MHA asking on what legal basis it had blocked our funds again, especially considering the Delhi High Court judgment. And the very next day, it seemed like all hell broke loose, with the media reporting that the government had suspended our FCRA registration, frozen our FCRA accounts and served us with a “show cause” notice with the threat that our FCRA permission would be revoked completely.
Here’s the thing though. In all the commotion, two facts have largely been ignored:
- The MHA again followed faulty process, actually no process at all, when it blocked the March 23 transfer. There was no notice issued to us, no communication about FCRA violation, and our FCRA was valid and active per the law at that time. It was only after we asked the MHA why they had blocked this transfer that our FCRA was suddenly suspended. So the question is, on what legal basis was the March 23 transfer blocked?
- Secondly, while the MHA alleges FCRA violations which justify blocking our FCRA accounts, it has ALSO blocked all our domestic accounts, even though such accounts are outside the jurisdiction of the FCRA. These domestic accounts are used to accept donations by tens of thousands of ordinary Indians (over 70,000 Indians gave us 20 crores in the last financial year). Since April 9, our supporters have had their attempts to donate blocked as the accounts are frozen. We are unable to either credit donations to these accounts, or make payments to staff, consultants or vendors. Even legally mandated payments such as gratuity and provident fund are not currently possible thanks to the MHA’s over reach.
This creates the appearance that the MHA has no regard for the judiciary or the laws of the land, and is using brute force to silence Greenpeace India. It is not our foreign funds that they are actually worried about, it is our very existence itself.
Greenpeace India has now written to the MHA asking for a clarification of these points, and asking that in the interim, our domestic accounts be unblocked, even as we will respond to the FCRA show cause notice within the time frame given. If past record is any judge, we will not receive an answer.
One last point bears repeating. Why is the government going to such lengths to shut Greenpeace India down? It’s because we have the financial backing of thousands of Indians, and the moral support of hundreds of thousands more who have joined our campaigns. It’s because we stand up for an alternative vision of development that is environmental sustainable and puts people and the planet above profits. And most of all it’s because we speak truth to power, and as a result, antagonize both government and their corporate masters – the Adanis, Ruias and Ambanis of the world.
There should be no doubt – the battle that we are fighting now is not just for the survival of Greenpeace India – it is for the values of free speech and dissent in a democracy, values that the founders of our nation and the architects of our Constitution cherished so dearly. Irrespective of your feelings for Greenpeace, if you value free the speech and the right to disagree with the government, you need get involved in this fight. Rest assured, if this government, through the Ministry of Home Affairs, is allowed to silence Greenpeace today, it will be coming after others next.