http://www.scribd.com/doc/229511459/IB-Report-NGOs-June-2014
His master’s voice? IB report rips off Modi’s anti-NGO agenda
by Jun 13, 2014
Narendra Modi ascension to power came with a good bit of apprehension about freedom of speech and the right to criticise the government. Though ministers like Prakash Javadekar sought to allay such fears by announcing the government welcomes criticism, arrests of people who put up anti-Modi posts on social media soon sent alarm bells ringing -- fairly or otherwise.
There was no evidence that Modi or his government was personally involved in ensuring police action in any of these incidents. But now we have the new IB report claiming NGOs like Greenpeace being 'a threat to economic security', and are a manifestation of the infamous 'foreign hand'. And this one has Modi sarkar written all over it.
The Indian Express reports that sections of the IB report have actually been directly copied from a Modi speech from 2006.
"On September 9, 2006, then Gujarat chief minister Modi had lashed out in a speech at a 'wealthy' and 'influential' class of NGOs that 'hire PR firms to continually build their image' with 'money coming from abroad.' The occasion was the release of the first edition of NGOs, Activists & Foreign Funds: Anti-Nation Industry edited by Radha Rajan and Krishen Kak - a collection of articles on what they called the anti-Hindu agenda and corrupt practices of certain NGOs."
There was no evidence that Modi or his government was personally involved in ensuring police action in any of these incidents. But now we have the new IB report claiming NGOs like Greenpeace being 'a threat to economic security', and are a manifestation of the infamous 'foreign hand'. And this one has Modi sarkar written all over it.
The Indian Express reports that sections of the IB report have actually been directly copied from a Modi speech from 2006.
"On September 9, 2006, then Gujarat chief minister Modi had lashed out in a speech at a 'wealthy' and 'influential' class of NGOs that 'hire PR firms to continually build their image' with 'money coming from abroad.' The occasion was the release of the first edition of NGOs, Activists & Foreign Funds: Anti-Nation Industry edited by Radha Rajan and Krishen Kak - a collection of articles on what they called the anti-Hindu agenda and corrupt practices of certain NGOs."
]![Narendra Modi. Reuters.]()
Narendra Modi. Reuters.
The IB report not only mirrors the same sentiments, but also lifts a paragraph directly from the book: "Another conspiracy - a vicious cycle is set up. Funds are obtained from abroad; an NGO is set up; a few articles are commissioned; a PR firm is recruited and, slowly, with the help of the media, an image is created. And then awards are procured from foreign countries to enhance this image. Such a vicious cycle, a network of finance-activity-award is set up and, once they have secured an award, no one in Hindustan dares raise a finger, no matter how many the failings of the awardee."
Narendra Modi. Reuters.It is evident, therefore, the IB report is certainly 'inspired' by what Narendra Modi's views of NGOs -- which have long been his favored nemesis. In the early days of his campaigning, Modi slammed NGOs for raising questions about the Gujarat model, and highlighting thorny issues such as the Naroda Patiya massacre and the environmental impact of the Narmada Dam.
The authors of the IB report seem to share the Prime Minister's view of such activity,noting, “A consortium of NGOs like Maldhari (herdsmen) Rural Action Group (MARAG), People's Union for Civil Liberties, Movement for Secular Democracy, Gujarat Sarvodaya Mandal, etc are making efforts to debunk the Gujarat model of development.” None of them have any foreign connection. Neither do the Movement for Secular Democracy or the PUCL which have actively lobbied for justice for the victims of the 2002 riots.
As Modi made clear in his campaign speeches, he views NGOs not only as opposition, but also as in cahoots with the Congress party, telling the audience, "Normally, political opponents get together to remove the ruling party but it is for the first time that the ruling party in association with NGOs and others has run a one-point programme not to save the government or form the government but only to stop Modi from coming to power."
Of course, much of this ignores the fact that Manmohan Singh was warning against foreign-funded NGOs back in the days of the anti-Kudankulam protests. And that many of the right-leaning organisations that support Modi are also NGOs by definition.
What is notable is that this maybe the first time the nation's premier intelligence agency has decided to take a leaf so openly and directly out the Prime Minister's political agenda -- and so soon after he's been sworn into office. There are no achhe din on the horizon for NGOs -- or at least NGOs of a certain kind.
http://www.firstpost.com/printpage.php?idno=1568913&sr_no=0
IB report on foreign-funded NGOs raises fears of curbs on dissent
by Jun 13, 2014
New Delhi: The 21-page Intelligence Bureau (IB) report on the “negative impact” of foreign-funded NGOs on India's growth rate packs quite a punch. The report claims that NGOs funded by donors based in the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries are using “people-centric issues to create an environment which lends itself to stalling development projects.” It goes on to make the rather sensational claim that the economic impact of this ‘anti-national' role of NGOs on India's GDP is to the tune of 2-3 percent per annum.
The report, not surprisingly, has elicited angry reactions from those accused of being a threat to India's ‘national economic security' and has been slammed as an attempt to “muzzle and silence civil society members who raise their voices against injustices to people and the environment by asking uncomfortable questions about the current models of growth.”
The report has also raised larger concerns among members of civil society about the implications of such a report on democratic rights of citizens to express dissent and to protest. “To demand that there should be labour law compliance and environment law compliance is not an anti-national activity. It is a legitimate activity. And if you are talking about equitable growth, it has to be growth that takes everybody along. I don't see that as a trade-off. I feel it is a false opposition that has been created,” said Harsh Mander, Director, Centre for Equity Studies, reacting to the IB report.
The long-term solution to ensure that NGOs were transparent and accountable, said Mander, was to bring them under the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act.
“The report can lead us in two directions. I wouldn't like to see it resulting in any kind of suppression of social dissent. But if it takes us in the direction of greater accountability of NGOs, I would support that,” said the social worker and writer.
]![Members of Greenpeace draping a poster on Essar's office in Mumbai. The IB report mentions Greenpeace as well. AFP]()
Members of Greenpeace draping a poster on Essar's office in Mumbai. The IB report mentions Greenpeace as well. AFP
Activists are concerned that the IB report could be used as an excuse to scuttle dissent. “The report seems to suggest that because of dissent and protest, growth is being negatively impacted. In a participatory democracy, people have the right to raise their voice against what they feel is going against their interest. And if that slows down decision-making to some extent, it is a necessary cost. The answer cannot be that we therefore clamp down on spaces for protest. These rights are as important as growth,” says Anjali Bhardwaj, founder of Satark Nagrik Sangathan, a Delhi-based citizens' group that focuses on greater transparency and accountability in government functioning.
Members of Greenpeace draping a poster on Essar's office in Mumbai. The IB report mentions Greenpeace as well. AFPAnother cause of worry is the timing of the report. Submitted on 3 June, it comes barely two weeks after the Narendra Modi-led government assumed office.
“In Parliament we don't have much of an Opposition to speak of. And that is a worry. For people's concerns to be brought out in a powerful and meaningful way, it is even more important that there be adequate spaces to put across points of view and to express dissent when and where ever necessary. If these spaces begin to shrink, it will be a cause for great concern to civil society and to anybody who wants our democracy to function strongly,” says Bhardwaj.
It is important, says the RTI activist, that the government clarify its stand on the IB report.
“I think the response of the government even to reports like this should be clear and, in my mind, be to say that democratic spaces are going to be protected and that spaces of dissent will be protected. And, of course, that if any NGO is guilty of a specific illegality, action will be taken. We hope the government will allay the fears of people and that it will clarify that such reports will not be used as a means to curb dissent,” she adds.
http://www.firstpost.com/printpage.php?idno=1568759&sr_no=0
Agnivesh to Left wingers: Who the IB report on NGOs names
by Jun 13, 2014
The 23-page Intelligence Bureau (IB) report titled ‘Concerted efforts by select foreign-funded NGOs to take down Indian development projects' names many eminent Indians who have either wittingly or unwittingly supported these NGOs, with or without financial consideration. While some of these prominent personalities were engaged in a variety of projects in India, others were invited abroad to attend conferences where they were briefed on how and why some kinds of mining and power projects - coal-fired and nuclear - and the construction of dams must be opposed.
Take Swami Agnivesh, for instance. The saffron socialist, IB report says, was invited to Geneva in Switzerland as one of the lead speakers in a “side event” on how “extractive industries” interfere with the enjoyment of human rights (14 September, 2012). He was invited by a Netherlands government-funded donor called CORDID. A `Geneva coalition' has begun working on extractive industries which has opposed oil drilling by Jubilant Energy in three districts of Manipur, dam-building in Arunachal Pradesh and mining projects in Meghalaya.
]![Starting 2012, Greenpeace activists have been financed to attend international coal conferences, such as the Istanbul Coal Strategy Conference (July 2012). AFP]()
Starting 2012, Greenpeace activists have been financed to attend international coal conferences, such as the Istanbul Coal Strategy Conference (July 2012). AFP
Elsewhere, while detailing foreign-funded anti-nuclear power activism, the IB report says that these networks are guided by eminent (often Left-wing) Indians, including Praful Bidwai, Achin Vanaik, Admiral (Retd) Ramdas, Lalitha Ramdas, Medha Patkar, Neeraj Jain, Banwarilal Sharma, Karuna Raina, Fr Thomas Kocherry, Arti Choksey and MG Devasahayam. The IB report has devoted quite a few paragraphs to SP Uday Kumar's German “contact” and Ohio State University funding to the Kudankulam anti-nuclear protests.
Starting 2012, Greenpeace activists have been financed to attend international coal conferences, such as the Istanbul Coal Strategy Conference (July 2012). AFPThe report says that there are territorial networks, which are closely linked and supported by superior networks of the numerous pan-Indian organizations, including Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, National Alliance of Anti Nuclear Movement (NAAM), People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), Greenpeace, Indian Social Action Forum, and the People's Education and Action Centre (PEACE).
After Greenpeace expanded its activities to oppose coal-fired power plants (CFPP) in 2010-11, it devised a new strategy of engaging reputed institutions and journalists for publishing reports or making documentaries.
The report says that to encourage the Indian-ness of its anti-coal approach, Greenpeace financed the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to study heath, pollution and other aspects at the Mahan coal block and plans to use the Mahan case as ammunition to ban all coal extraction. In April 2013, Greenpeace supported and screened a documentary ‘Coal Curse' directed by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta on the harmful consequences of coal-mining in the Singrauli region, Madhya Pradesh. It also funded an IIT, Delhi, study in April 2013 which said that water diversion to CFPP caused a 40 percent reduction in the irrigation potential of Wardha region in Maharashtra. It demanded a ban on water allocation to the planned and existing CFPP.
On its part, Greenpeace and Urban Emissions and Conservation Action Trust published a questionable technical report which claimed 100,000 deaths in 2011 and 2012 due to heart problems arising from 111 existing coal-fired plants in India.
Starting 2012, Greenpeace activists have been financed to attend international coal conferences, such as the Istanbul Coal Strategy Conference (July 2012). The conference was held to discuss international funding to encourage “people-centric” protests in order to “stop new coal-build plants and to retire existing coal plants”. The guests were accorded lavish five-star treatment for attending the conference. A map of India's coal-fired power projects with basic details was circulated by US-based Climate Works Foundation and World Resources Institute.
“While its (Greenpeace) efforts to raise obstacles to India's coal-based energy plans are gathering pace, it has also started spawning mass-based movements against developmental projects and is assessed to be posing a threat to national economic security. In India, Greenpeace is growing exponentially in terms of reach, impact, volunteers, movements it supports and media influence”, the IB report says, citing specific instances on public protests in Singrauli, the Mahan coal block, and against Sasan ultra mega power project.
“These activists have mapped out Indian coal mining companies, specifically mentioning Coal India Limited (CIL), Hindalco, Aditya Birla Group and Essar, which have been targeted because they stand in their way. Greenpeace aims to fundamentally change the dynamics of India's energy mix by disrupting and weakening the relationship between the key players, including the CIL”, the report said.
The report also has a paragraph on Greenpeace's Indian headquarters in Bangalore where it regularly receives foreign experts. “Recently a group of cyber security experts upgraded its communication systems and installed sophisticated and encrypted software in its servers and computers”. The IB basically is raising questions as to why an NGO needs to constantly upgrade its communication system and have it encrypted with sophisticated software.
If Greenpeace is busy in the mainland, Dutch-funded NGOs are focusing on the north-east. The IB report gives examples of how they lure Indian activists and NGOs to serve their purposes. Interestingly, the Dutch government-funded CORDAID, has slowly shifted its focus from human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir to the north-east.
To assess the potential for civil rights activism, senior policy officer CORDAID, Eelco De Groot, earlier associated with the Dutch ministry of economic affairs, had planned a visit to Manipur from March 5-12, 2013, but permission was denied. He had planned the visit through an organisation called the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the report says.
To circumvent the visa denial, De Groot invited and funded the trip of 8 North Eastern participants to Bangkok from 28 April to 3 May 2013, for training in extractive activism. The event was formally sponsored by a Manipur-based NGO, rural women's upliftment society. The meeting resolved how future activism is to be organised. De Groot emphasised that instead of fighting the government it was best to make it difficult for companies to meet all the required international standards in oil extraction.
This was followed up by an elaborate training session in Shillong from 28 October to 1 November 2013 to equip activists with skills to use GPS tracking to update a GIS platform on extractives in the north-east.
CORDAID and three United Kingdom-based organizations, Amnesty International, Action Aid and Survival International, have been campaigning extensively against Vedanta Aluminium Limited. Around 15 Indian NGOs too are active against Vedanta. There was also an element of inter-corporate and international corporate rivalry. The report quoted the CMD of JSW Steel, Sajjan Jindal, as saying that some corporates routed around Rs 50 crore per annum in Odisha against Vedanta through American and Canadian organisations and Indian NGOs to stall the project.
http://www.firstpost.com/printpage.php?idno=1569081&sr_no=0