India has intensified a massive crackdown against foreign charities, including dozens with Canadian links and warned global activists and aid organisations not to work against the Modi government.
NGOs in India receive hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign donations from over 150 countries, including Canada.
A government report report alleged that the "areas of action" of the foreign-funded NGOs include anti-nuclear, anti-coal and anti-GM organisms protests. Apart from stalling mega industrial projects including those floated by Posco and Vedanta, these NGOs have also been working to the detriment of mining, dam and oil drilling projects in northeastern India, it said.
Last week, an Indian minister monitoring $1.8 billion of foreign aid accused the Vancouver-founded Greenpeace of inciting protests against industrial projects.
The warning from junior home minister Kiren Rijiju follows a crackdown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration on foreign-funded non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including Greenpeace and the Ford Foundation. The crackdown has been criticised by the United States and Indian civil society groups.
Greenpeace activists were “unnecessarily inciting innocent people against crucial projects without any valid reason”, Rijiju said in an interview with Reuters this week. The ministry’s foreigners division, which is under Rijiju and oversaw some $1.8 billion of incoming aid in 2014, suspended Greenpeace’s licence to get foreign funds this year, citing financial irregularities.
It has frozen some Greenpeace bank accounts.
The actions came after Greenpeace supported protests against a planned $3.2 billion coal mine in the Mahan forests in central India, which resulted in a court withdrawing permits for the Indian companies Essar and Hindalco to develop the project. An Indian activist leading the campaign was barred from flying to London to address parliamentarians about the project. The foreigners division this year prevented one foreign Greenpeace official from entering the country.
Rijiju said Greenpeace had diverted foreign contributions from their stated purpose. Greenpeace has taken legal action against the government’s measures. “Punitive steps have been taken because rules were totally violated,” Rijiju said.
“Some of the NGOs, if they are designed to work against a particular party or government, or they misuse the contributions, then they will attract provisions,” he said, adding it was “evident” Greenpeace was hostile to the government. Greenpeace, which is fighting the government measures in court, denies its activities are hurting development in the world’s largest democracy.
“The government’s sole aim to crush each and every voice of dissent. How can campaigns for clean air, programmes for renewable energy be anti-government?” asked Vinuta Gopal, acting head of Greenpeace India.
Greenpeace has been campaigning and representing the voice of the poor on issues of sustainable development, environmental justice and clean, affordable energy. The high profile international environment activist group claims it is being hounded for opposing policies that are unfavourable for the future of the country.
It recently released a report ‘Sustainable Streetlighting’ — a part of its ‘safe city’ campaign that proposes solar LED street lights to check crime against women. Identifying more than 700 dark spots in Delhi, the NGO suggested electrifying those areas with solar technology at a much lower cost. But, it seems all plans are in limbo.
Vinuta Gopal, who is currently working as Greenpeace India’s co-Executive Director, said in a published interview: “We are being targeted for striving to ensure that the development model [followed by the government] is holistic and sustainable. Muzzling us, blocking our funds and calling our campaigns ‘protest creation’ or a threat to economic security is clearly a part of the smear campaign against us by the Ministry of Home Affairs. There is no economic security in the absence of clean air, water, food and a liveable planet. But the government clearly has a different definition of development, which is heavily in favour of a small number of destructive corporations instead of being pro-people, and is seeking to dismiss any criticism of its actions.”
In the ongoing crackdown by the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, licences of 10,117 NGOs have been cancelled.
The cancellation has been done under Foreign Contribution Regulations Act (FCRA).
One of the reasons given for the strong action is non-filing of annual returns by these NGOs and that they were allegedly involved in money laundering and other unscrupulous activities.
Among the barred list are some top educational institutions like IIT — Kharagpur, IIT-Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Delhi and Punjab University.
Others like the Sierra Club, 350.org, the Ford Foundation, and Cordaid have also been targetted.
Critics said, the Modi administration specifically targets human rights activists, environmentalists and whistle-blowers seeking justice for victims of violence and activists seeking protection of India's ecology and natural resources like rivers and forests. 
Prominent human rights activists and activists like Teesta Setalvad (Sabrang) and Meera Pillai (Greenpeace) have been harassed with investigations by government agencies and threats of arrest by police, despite the courts disagreeing with those charges against them. 
The Alliance for Justice and Accountability (AJA) said that it has urged Silicon Valley CEOs, like Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Shantanu Narayen, and Elon Musk to press Modi to respect internet privacy, net neutrality, online political free speech, and human rights and environmental rights in general.