Offices of Amnesty International India [AII] in Bengaluru and New Delhi were raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI], an independent investigating agency. As per reports that surfaced post the raid, it is being said that the international human rights organization has been raided for accusations concerning irregularities in the funds obtained via the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act [FCRA]. In response to the said action of the Union government, Amnesty has contested the charges calling it another way of ‘harassment’, not allowing them to practice their work in the field of human rights adequately. Amnesty International, in a press release, issued a statement in this regard. It read
“The Central Bureau of Investigation today conducted searches at the offices of Amnesty International India Private Limited and Indians for Amnesty International Trust (from now on referred to as ‘Amnesty India’) in Bengaluru and New Delhi. Over the past year, a pattern of harassment has emerged every time Amnesty India stands up and speaks out against human rights violations in India,”
In the past months, the human rights organization has been actively participating in the campaigning of mass violations taking place in Jammu and Kashmir, after the announcement of abrogation set in. The conduction of raids is not the first and isolated incident of such an attack on the organization. Once before in October, last year, the Enforcement Directorate [ED] conducted raids and searches on the two national offices of AII- in New Delhi & Bangalore. Back then, the allegations being suspected were violations of the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act [FEMA]. Since then the AII has maintained its stand that none of the accusations was correct and that the organization has been fully transparent about its functioning and funding received from various foreign agencies. An employee of the AII informed under anonymity that back in October 2018, the ED had never informed about the specific charges for which the organization was apprehended. It was only in August 2019 that the organization was served with a show-cause notice, which detailed the costs. AII has said that they are prepared to counter every allegation put forth. The preparedness of the organization is to the extent that they have made all their financial documents public, with open access on their website.
Raids were conducted on Greenpeace India in October 2018:
AII has not been the only victim of this state exercise and what has been called in condemnation as the ‘gross abuse of power’. At the same time in last year, the ED had conducted similar raids in the office of Greenpeace India, which is also international non-profit campaigning for environmental issues, violating the norms of FEMA. In retaliation, the GI had also defended every claim. The civil society organizations across the countries have widely condemned the action of the state, calling it ‘disturbing and concerning’. If the apprehensions are in fact correct that the raids are a fall out of the advocacy by AII during and after the Jammu and Kashmir clampdown, it is a shame on democracy.
Repeating attacks on the working of the human rights organizations, since 2014:
Since Modi government assumed power, there has been continuous and close scrutiny of many non-profit organizations working in the country. Though on many counts, the CBI and the ED have proceeded to say that these NGOs engaged themselves in anti-national activities. They have been unable to prove any of these charges yet. These are seen as a manner for the Union Government to show its vindication and nothing but ‘harassment tactics to silence’ the work of these leading organizations. A human rights lawyer based out of New Delhi spoke to The Wire on the issue and has said:
“Only those NGOs which have dissented against some of the Centre’s authoritarian moves are being targeted. This is a pattern. In contrast, no such action was taken against friendly NGOs and thought tanks like India Foundation,”
Meanwhile, throughout these attempts to harass these human rights organizations, they have repeatedly maintained the stand that it has not violated any Indian legal provisions and ‘aims to fight back’. In its statement, it has said that it is in full compliance with both the Indian as well as internal legal relevant to their working. They briefed about their work in human rights, saying that their job is to uphold and fight for universal preservation of human rights. Human rights are not an alien concept, somewhat stem out of the values enshrined in the Indian constitution, echoing the principles of the long and rich Indian tradition of pluralism, tolerance and dissent, they said.