Transparency is two way

After the Central government stopped Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai from travelling to the UK to speak on the subject of tribal communities’ rights, it told the Delhi High Court that her activities would convey a poor image of India abroad and affect foreign investments. The high court, however, declared it an infringement of fundamental rights. Now the US has questioned India's order requiring prior approval for all Ford Foundation funds coming into the country, and the freezing of Greenpeace accounts. It says the action will limit the ‘necessary and critical debate within Indian society’. It is obvious the Modi government's actions too are not doing any good to India's image.

The actions initiated against Greenpeace and Ford Foundation are under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. Both organisations have been financing activities through multiple channels, organisations and accounts. That makes the transfer of funds, their accounting and utilisation a complex operation. This could lead to bona fide mistakes in accounting, but at the same time could possibly also be used to cover up for funding of unauthorised activities, as the government suspects. The government, however, has presented no prima facie evidence of that. There are apparently some discrepancies in their accounting, but the charge of mala fide intention is not substantiated. A justified course of action would have been to ask the organisations to explain all suspect issues. If need be, an investigation could have been launched. The sweeping action suggests the country has something to hide.

Greenpeace has been active worldwide on environment-related issues. That puts it in conflict with industry, and therefore most governments. But if it has objectives other than environment, it is not demonstrated thus far. The same goes for the Ford Foundation, which has been a major supporter of education, research and culture preservation in India. Social activism in India is limited largely to PIL and agitation. The reason is limited finance for such causes. Organised resistance needs research and big money, and that is something India is not used to. It is time we revisited our levels of tolerance.