What is the price of dissent?
In India, Greenpeace is slowly finding out, one clash at a time.
A very public, ongoing battle between the powerful Indian government and the environmental organization that began a year ago with the release of an intelligence report singling out Greenpeace as a “threat,” made headlines again when a campaigner was denied entry into the country.
Australian Aaron Gray-Block was put on a flight to Malaysia last week after he landed in Bangalore because his name figured in a “blacklist.”
There has been no let-up to attacks on Greenpeace, said Priya Pillai, a Greenpeace climate campaigner in New Delhi. “For the past one whole year, it feels like we have been constantly firefighting.”
The organization’s work is suffering, she said.
And the situation isn’t unique to Greenpeace.
Hundreds of NGOs and charities — environmental and other — have been under the government radar since last June, when the Intelligence Bureau leaked a report accusing several foreign-funded NGOs of stalling infrastructure projects.
The government has also restricted direct transfers of foreign donations.
The report named several activists and organizations but singled out Greenpeace as a “threat to national economic security.” The report also said the global organization was using its “exponential” growth in terms of “reach, impact, volunteers and media influence” to create obstacles in India’s energy plans.
Since then, Greenpeace India’s offices have undergone inspections, its bank accounts have been frozen and at least three staffers, including Pillai, have been refused permission to either enter or leave India.
In May, Greenpeace feared it would have to close its offices in India, where it has 340 staffers.
(Just days later, a court ordered the government to let the organization access the majority of its funds, which it required to stay open.)
“It seems like the government is using (Greenpeace) as an example for others,” said Madhuresh Kumar of the National Alliance of People’s Movements in New Delhi. “Greenpeace is a brand; it is big. To crack down on Greenpeace is to send a message that if we can take on Greenpeace, we can also reach you.”
It’s a way of controlling NGOs and charities, he said. “The government doesn’t want opposition.”
Among other things, Greenpeace has opposed coal mining projects in forest areas, with its most recent campaign in Mahan, in the populous state of Madhya Pradesh, successfully stalling a coal mine.
Pillai has been with that campaign.
The organization is also fighting air pollution — the World Health Organization recently named New Delhi as the world’s worst city for air pollution — and coal projects that threaten tribal people. Typically, this means opposing projects that also expand needed electricity infrastructure in the country.
The development agenda of the Indian government — led by the nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi — involves building new mines and coal- and nuclear-fired power stations, which Greenpeace vehemently opposes.
There have been protests and ordinary people have been angry with how NGOs and charities are being treated, said Kumar.
It doesn’t seem to have deterred the government.
Recently, the Indian government revoked the licences of nearly 9,000 foreign-funded non-profits for allegedly failing to disclose financial sources. Highly respected organizations like 350.org and Sierra Club have been added to watch lists, according to reports.
Source: Raveena Aulakh | The Star
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