With its accounts frozen and forced to scale down operations, Greenpeace India on Thursday said it has been a "humiliating" year for the organisation and it is not expected from a elected government to treat "legitimate NGOs" like it in such a manner.
With its accounts frozen and forced to scale down operations, Greenpeace India on Thursday said it has been a "humiliating" year for the organisation and it is not expected from a elected government to treat "legitimate NGOs" like it in such a manner.
Days after it announced 'imminent' shutdown due to government's crackdown, the environment NGO said it will continue to run basic functions for another month by scaling back the extent of the campaign to "bare minimum" as it has seen a "surge" in support from civil society, donors and the staff, which has offered to work without pay.
The environment NGO also hoped for a "positive outcome" from the Delhi High Court, which will hear its writ petition challenging the suspension of its FCRA license on May 26.
While the organisation has urged supporters to sign a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to support free speech in India, it said that more than 200 of its staff have written to its executive director Samit Aich promising to work without pay in June while other civil societies have offered logistical support such as space for carrying out operations.
"Over the past few weeks we have seen an incredible surge in support for Greenpeace India. Today my staff sent me a very moving letter in which they promised to work without pay for one month.
"I hope it will not come to this and my staff and their families avoid this hardship. But if necessary, we are able to keep the basic functions of Greenpeace India running until the end of June," Aich told reporters adding that this will be absolutely "last resort" and the body will have to "scale back the extent of the campaign to the bare minimum".
"Based on this, we have a plan where we can operate for the month of June. We have to be resilient about it," he said. Referring to the letter, Aich said that although the 340 odd staff of the body were concerned, but their commitment remains strong.
He alleged that this sort of crackdown was "unprecedented" in the history of the organisation which has put it at the verge of a shutdown.
Noting that on May 26, the court will hear its writ petition, which challenged the suspension of its FCRA license and the block on its national and international bank accounts, Aich said that the body has great "faith" in the Indian judicial system and is hoping for a "positive outcome".
"We are confident in our case and are hopeful that the court will grant us relief on Tuesday. But the wheels of justice can take time, and we need to make sure we don't disappear completely in the next few weeks. This plan enables us to do that," he said.
Asked how the organisation views the policies initiated by the present government which is completing one year, Aich said that for the body it was a "humiliating" year and it is "not expected from a elected government to treat legitimate NGOs like Greenpeace in such a manner".
"If you see the range of decisions which have been taken, most of them have been faulty and they have been more on speed and not on depth. For a government it is important to demonstrate not just how decisions are taken speedily but with depth," Aich said.
The body has also invited its supporters from around the world to sign an open letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, urging him to lend his voice in support of free speech in India.
The government has barred Greenpeace India from receiving foreign funds by suspending its licence for six months and freezing all its accounts after alleging that it has "prejudicially" affected the country's interests.
"I am asking for thousands of people around the world to join me in standing up for Greenpeace India and speaking up for freedom," Aich said in his email to supporters. He said that the Greenpeace International is also watching the situation very "closely" and are "concerned" as such a situation was unprecedented in the organisation's history.
Greenpeace India has also submitted a comprehensive rebuttal to the Home Ministry's show-cause and demanded immediate unblocking of its domestic bank accounts.
Greenpeace India campaigner Priya Pillai also accused the government of "systematically dismantling" every legislation put in place as regulation to protect the environment in the last one year.
"Each of the legislations have been diluted in the last one year including the land bill, the forest rights act..each of these areas, government has diluted in favour of corporates, single window clearances, doing away with environmental and social impact assessments and community consent. This is a matter of grave concern for us," Pillai said.
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