MHA twisting facts, alleges Greenpeace

NEW DELHI: Greenpeace India on Saturday hit back at the Modi government for freezing its seven bank accounts and accused the home ministry of twisting facts to clamp down on dissenting voices.

“We will not only challenge the ministry of home affairs in courts, but also continue to campaign fearlessly on the issues we work on,” Greenpeace India said in its statement to rebut some of the charges levelled at the nongovernmental organisation by the home ministry.

The MHA order to suspend Greenpeace India’s registration necessary to receive foreign funds had cited seven counts of flouting the foreign contribution law, including its failure to keep the home ministry posted about a change in its address from Chennai to Bengaluru.

Another was that Greenpeace had incorrectly reported its opening balance as zero in 2008-09 when it had `6.6 crore. Insisting that this was a typographical error made in the hard copy, Greenpeace India pointed that their online submission to the home ministry had the right figures.

It also rejected the home ministry charge that it had not reported salary paid to Greenpeace International activist Greg Muttitt, pointing that they only had to reimburse his travel, stay and related expenses.

“His salary of approximately 56,000 euros, was borne by Greenpeace International... as he was their employee,” the NGO said.