Greenpeace India's Registration Cancelled

Greenpeace India's Registration Cancelled

By Countercurrents.org

07 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org

Greenpeace India's registration was cancelled by the Tamil Nadu Registrar of Societies. Greenpeace India, registered as an NGO in India under the Tamil Nadu Registrar of Societies (RoS), got the order of cancellation of its registration on Friday, although the order was formally issued on Wednesday. Greenpeace India will challenge this order in the Madras high court.

"The RoS is clearly acting under directions from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in Delhi, which has been trying to shut Greenpeace India down for over a year now," said Vinuta Gopal, Interim Executive Director of the NGO. "The MHA's clumsy tactics to suppress free speech and dissenting voices are turning into a major national and international embarrassment for this government. This is an extension of the deep intolerance for differing viewpoints that sections of this government seem to harbor," she added.

Gopal said the RoS passed this order without granting Greenpeace a hearing and without complying with the Madras high court order to address each of the NGO's points and queries. "This is a blatant attempt to circumvent the legal process and shows no respect for the law. We are confident that we are on strong legal ground. We have faith in the legal process and are confident of overcoming this order,"Gopal said.

Over the last 18 months, Greenpeace India has endured repeated attempts at suppression through different government authorities.

Ever since the Narendra Modi government came to power in New Delhi, several NGOs were targeted alleging that they are working against India's development. The government had cancelled licence of thousands of NGOs citing violation of Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), under which they received funds from abroad, including that of Greenpeace India. Greenpeace India's bank accounts also were blocked. They were fighting a legal battle to reopen the bank accounts.

In early January of this year Priya Pillai, a Greenpeace senior campaigner was stopped on Sunday morning from boarding a flight to London where she was to brief British MPs on the rights of forest-dwelling communities affected by coal mining. She was invited by the British MPs to talk about her campaigning with local communities in Mahan, Madhya Pradesh, where a proposed coal mining project led by Essar, a London-based company, threatens to uproot the lives and livelihoods of the forest community which lives there.