Press release – 14 April, 2015New Delhi, 14 April 2015 – Following the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) again blocking Greenpeace India’s ability to receive money from overseas, Samit Aich, Executive Director of Greenpeace India said today:“We will follow due process and respond to the MHA’s claims of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act violations and take the matter to court. But the government has also blocked our domestic accounts and is now preventing Indians from supporting our work for clean air, healthy forests, pesticide-free food and a livable environment. This isn’t about Greenpeace India’s constitutional and unquestionable right to receive funds from abroad, this is about the government trying to shut us down. The government is simply ignoring the concerns of the hundreds of thousands of Indians that support our campaigns, and the 70,000-plus Indians who support us financially.”
Last week, the MHA had temporarily suspended Greenpeace India’s license to receive money from overseas and served it with a show cause notice for alleged violations of the
Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA)
. Greenpeace India gets 70% of its funds from Indians, and the MHA has ordered that these funds be frozen as well. There is no provision in the FCRA Act, 2010 that permits this.
In the five days since news of the FCRA suspension was leaked by the MHA to media, a number of Indians have come forward to pledge their support for the organisation. However, many have seen their attempts to donate to the NGO blocked.
Amnesty International has
called the blocking the funds
: “… extreme measures taken by the government to disable an organisation for promoting the voices of some of the country’s most powerless people will damage and shame India. Intolerance to dissent will only weaken our society.”