9,000 charities’ licences scrapped

Government under attack from opposition and NGOs over ‘revengeful’ decision

India has cancelled the registration of nearly 9,000 charities for failing to declare details of donations from abroad, as New Delhi tightens surveillance on foreign-funded non-governmental organisations in the country.

The crackdown comes days after the government suspended the licence of Greenpeace India and put US-based Ford Foundation on a security watch list, ordering government approval of any of its activities in the country.

A “cancellation order” issued by the home ministry and uploaded to its website late on Monday said the government had cancelled the registration of 8,975 associations because they did not declare details of their foreign funding for three years starting from 2009/10.

The order, dated April 6, did not name the groups whose licences were cancelled but said they had not filed the “mandatory annual returns”.

The government yesterday came under attack from Congress and NGOs for its decision to scrap licences of more than 9,000 NGO’s for allegedly violating Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, accusing it of being vengeful and targeting selectively.

Congress leaders said certain non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which were critical of government polices were on the firing line.

Senior Congress leader Verappa Moily said the present government is “very revengeful” and its actions amounted to curbing the movement of NGOs.

“The government is merely drawing inferences. This is not in the interest of the country. Creating an image that all the NGOs are not good is not good for the country,” he said and added that if there was an erring NGO, it should be prosecuted.

Greenpeace accounts

Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai, who was prevented from going abroad to the UK, said that her organisation had been publishing its accounts on its website.

“We are not being targeted for our accounts. The main issue why Greenpeace and some other NGOs are being targeted is because it has a voice of dissent. Because they have been working for tribal rights, land rights of communities and this has been an area of concern for the government.

“The government is not ready to listen to the voice of dissent in the country,” she said.

However, Minister of State Kiren Rijiju defended the decision, saying “action has been taken after getting specific inputs.”