A report by the Intelligence Bureau (IB), targeting non-Governmental organisations, is raising fears among activists that attempts are being made to muzzle dissent.

“We are very much concerned that the ground is being prepared to oppose and to justify discrediting a whole range of popular activities and resistances and to weaken them by highlighting and taking out supposed fallacies of NGOs,” Achin Vanaik, member of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (India) said.

Vanaik has been named in the report, along with many well known activists, such as political analyst and anti-nuclear activist Praful Bidwai, MG Devasahayam, SP Uday Kumar, Medha Patkar and Karuna Raina. The IB report has reportedly been submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office. Uday Kumar, an anti-nuclear activist, said the report has undermined not just his integrity, but also his safety and he could take legal recourse against the IB.

‘Ánti-national’ The report, which Business Line has access to, mentions several international organisations such as Greenpeace, Action Aid and even Amnesty, besides Indian groups as well as individuals, has alleged that NGOs, which have been termed “anti-national”, are effecting India’s GDP growth by two to three per cent. However, Bidwai countered this by saying research has shown that the cost of environmental degradation, which is the agenda for most of the NGOs mentioned, is costing India 5-7 per cent of its GDP.

Devasahayam, a retired IAS officer and power policy expert, who was involved in protests against the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu, said the report was baseless and the NGOs were actually carrying out the agenda of the Government itself.

The report alleges that these NGOs are being funded by foreign entities and are derailing the country’s “economic security” with their campaigns against developmental projects such as nuclear energy, coal mining, power plants, hydel projects and others, which have been criticised for not being in line with the agenda for sustainable development.

However, Bidwai refuted the allegation of foreign funding and said CNDP and most other NGOs named in the report are funded through domestic sources only.

The report also says Greenpeace plans to campaign against import of palm oil from Indonesia and dumping of e-waste by IT firms, both of which are seen as major environmental concerns globally.

Related Topics