{"id":2286,"date":"2015-04-21T09:47:41","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T09:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/?p=2286"},"modified":"2021-12-01T12:37:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T12:37:16","slug":"country-wide-support-pours-in-from-civil-society-organisations-for-greenpeace-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/press\/2286\/country-wide-support-pours-in-from-civil-society-organisations-for-greenpeace-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Country-wide Support pours in From Civil Society Organisations for Greenpeace India"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Letter of protest against crackdown delivered to the home minister<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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New Delhi |\u00a0April 21, 2015|\u00a0Members of civil society in came together to condemn the NDA government\u2019s recent crackdown on organisations like Greenpeace India. Releasing a protest letter <\/a>that over 180 organisations and citizens have today sent to <\/strong>Mr. Rajnath Singh, the Union Minister for Home Affairs, the statement declared the crackdown as \u2018shameful\u2019 in a country that has a history standing up for social justice, ecological sustainability, and the rights of the poor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The letter states that \u201cIt is shocking that despite clear judicial pronouncements, the government has for a third time acted against Greenpeace India. We cannot but conclude that this is an attempt to divert attention from the serious issues that Greenpeace India and many peoples\u2019 movements and NGOs are raising, regarding the need to respect the rights of adivasis and others, who depend on the forests, wetlands, coastal areas, and other ecosystems, and the need to move towards policies that are ecologically sustainable and do not cause further climate change. Large-scale mining, such as in the areas that peoples\u2019 movements are active, are a threat to forests and other natural ecosystems, to communities that depend on them including tribal peoples. These and other issues are highlighted by organizations such as Greenpeace India, which also generate significant information on the environment, crucial for taking the right decisions regarding sustainable well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to a new development of the MHA\u2019s alleged request to the Revenue Department to revoke the NGO\u2019s charity status and society registration, Samit Aich, executive Director, Greenpeace India has called it an \u201corchestrated attack on free speech, Constitutional rights and India\u2019s democratic fabric.\u201d \u201cThe new line of attack questioning the charity status of Greenpeace has no more justification than blocking foreign funding or offloading Priya Pillai. Greenpeace India has nothing to hide and will continue to campaign for a sustainable and just future for Indians. Such attempts of clampdown only make us stronger,\u201d said Aich.<\/p>\n

Civil society members also held a press conference in Pune. Responding to the MHA\u2019s all out attack, Ashish Kothari of Kalpavriksh and current Greenpeace India Board Chairperson said: \u201cThe move by the Ministry of Home Affairs to freeze Greenpeace India\u2019s bank accounts and block both international and domestic funds is a blatant violation of the constitutional rights to freedom of expression and association. It also seems to be an attempt to warn civil society that dissent regarding developmental policies will not be tolerated. These are dangerous signs for the future of democracy in India.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civil society activists including Medha Patkar, Achin Vanaik, Harsh Mander, Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Bittu Sehgal, Ashish Kothari, Lalita Ramdas and many others, called upon the government to immediately stop its illegitimate and repressive moves, and respect the freedom of speech that all Indian citizens have a constitutional right to.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDonate to Greenpeace\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Donate today or consider remembering Greenpeace in your Will.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n Get Involved\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letter of protest against crackdown delivered to the home minister New Delhi |\u00a0April 21, 2015|\u00a0Members of civil society in came together to condemn the NDA government\u2019s recent crackdown on organisations…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":1505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-2286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2286"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12330,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286\/revisions\/12330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2286"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=2286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}