Govt cancels Greenpeace India's FCRA licence, NGO says determined to fight order

In yet another crackdown on NGOs, government on Thursday cancelled the registration of Greenpeace India under the Foreign Contribution Regulations Act (FCRA) for its activities which allegedly hampered country's economic growth.

The Greenpeace India's registration has been cancelled under Section 13 of the FCRA, a senior Home Ministry official said. The decision would mean that the NGO will not be able to receive from abroad the funds, which are upto 30 per cent of its overall cost of operations.

Greenpeace India has about 340 people working with it.  The group tweeted about the Cengtre

News of our FCRA license being cancelled 1 day before scheduled hearing at Delhi HC: http://t.co/xhJg9MvEtr

— Greenpeace India (@greenpeaceindia) September 3, 2015

The MHA @HMOIndia may have cancelled our FCRA registration, but they can’t take away our determination. Picture abhi baaki hai! Stay tuned!

— Greenpeace India (@greenpeaceindia) September 3, 2015

The Judiciary has ruled in Greenpeace favour. TWICE. #RightToDissent worth fighting for? More drama coming tomorrow as #BollywoodGetsReal!”

— Greenpeace India (@greenpeaceindia) September 3, 2015

The Union Home Ministry today told the Delhi High Court that it cancelled foreign contribution registration of Greenpeace India as it was continuing to use its FCRA accounts despite suspension of the same. MHA, in an affidavit filed in court, has claimed that Greenpeace violated Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) by mixing its foreign and domestic contributions. The affidavit has been filed in a plea moved by the NGO challenging suspension of its FCRA registration and freezing of its foreign and domestic contribution accounts.

The court had on May 27 allowed Greenpeace to use two of its accounts for the purpose of receiving and utilising fresh domestic donations for its day-to-day functioning. 

The Ministry had on April 9 suspended the NGO's registration under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) for 180 days.

The Greenpeace said in its petition that the Ministry had earlier issued show cause notice to it asking why its registration should not be cancelled for allegedly transferring monies from its "FCRA-designated bank to the FCRA utilisation account and from there to five other undeclared utilisation bank accounts without informing the authority".

Greenpeace India termed the government action as an attempt to "silence campaigns" and said it will not be deterred. Vinuta Gopal, interim co-Executive Director of Greenpeace India, said Greenpeace India will continue its campaigning undeterred and is in fact launching a "new creative campaign" to highlight crackdown on civil liberties. "The cancelling of our FCRA registration is the government's latest move in a relentless onslaught against the community's right to dissent. It is yet another attempt to silence campaigns for a more sustainable future and transparency in public processes, Gopal said. "Cutting access to our foreign funding may be a desperate attempt to get us to cease our work but the MHA probably didn't count on our having an amazing network of volunteers and supporters who have helped us continue our work despite the government crackdown.

"Since the majority of our funding comes from Indian citizens, most of our work can indeed continue," the Greenpeace official said.Gopal added, "in fact, we are responding to this latest melodrama by launching a new creative online campaign and are confident that people will show they are ready to fight back in style, and send a clear message to those in power: you can't muzzle dissent in a democracy."

Hozefa Merchant, the Greenpeace Campaigner, said the government action will not affect the organisation much financially as 70 per cent of funds are generated domestically. Priya Pillai, Greenpeace activist who was earlier in January prevented from travelling to UK, said the government has been cracking down on her NGO "vengefully" but they will not be deterred.

The cancellation of FCRA licence came months after the Home Ministry suspended operations of Greenpeace and blocked foreign funding alleging that the NGO had been involved in activities contrary to country's economic progress like organising protests against coal mining, anti-govenment propaganda in abroad.

Pillai was offloaded from a London-bound flight by immigration officers in New Delhi airport in January to prevent her from travelling to UK where she was to address British parliamentarians. The Delhi High Court later overturned the action by the Home Ministry and Pillai's "offload" passport stamp was expunged in May.

The Centre had in April blocked Greenpeace India's bank accounts, following which the environmental group had to seek interim relief from the Delhi High Court. Since last one year, FCRA licence of at least 11,000 NGOs were cancelled by the government for violating various provisions of FCRA.

In April, government ordered that funds coming from the US-based Ford Foundation should not be released by any bank to any Indian NGO without mandatory permission from the Home Ministry.

A crisis response campaigner with Greenpeace International, Aaron Gray-Block, was denied entry into India. Three months ago as his name figured in a Home Ministry "black list".