Amnesty International has been forced to shut down its operations in India as the Indian government froze its bank accounts. The Enforcement Directorate of India which investigates economic crimes froze Amnesty India’s bank account on 10thSeptember. Weeks later it announced closing of its India offices.
Amnesty International described it as “witch hunt” by the union government which forced them to close its India offices. The union government received huge amounts of criticism for it, however there are lesser-known facts about this human rights organization.
Firstly, its incorporation. Amnesty International had received the permission for its operations in India under FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) twenty years ago, on 19th December 2000. Since then, Amnesty International is trying to get FCRA approval.
The approval is denied by successive governments since them. Hence criticizing the present government is not justified. This is not the first time when Amnesty International had halted it operations in India. It had suspended its operations in India in 2009. The congress led UPA was in power in 2009. The approval is being denied not due to some political agenda but as per law this organization is not eligible to receive such approval. Because of the repeated denials Amnesty used commercial methods to evade FCRA.
Secondly, the alleged mala fide rerouting of money. Amnesty UK rerouted large amounts of money to four entities registered in India, by classifying it as FDI (Foreign Direct Investment). A significant amount was also remitted to Amnesty India without Ministry of Home Affair’s FCRA approval. Allegedly Amnesty has received 46 crores violating FCRA and FDI norms according to CBI. Previous government had also rejected Amnesty’s applications to receive funds overseas.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, “all the glossy statements about humanitarian work and speaking truth to power are nothing but a ploy to divert attention from their activities which were in clear contravention of laid down Indian laws. Such statements are also an attempt to extraneously influence the course of investigations by multiple agencies into the irregularities and illegalities carried out over the last few years.”
Thirdly, Amnesty International in India had started in running its selective propaganda in the name of Human Rights:
- When rapists of Nirbhaya were hanged, Amnesty had condemned it openly, Amnesty had stated Supreme Court’s decision to hang the rapists as unfortunate.
- When death penalty in cases of child sexual abuse was announced, amnesty condemned it stating that it would send more poor, lower caste and religious minority accused to death row.
- Amnesty had allegedly spread fake news about police encounters in the state of Uttar Pradesh, but Uttar Pradesh Police had openly condemned this stating there were serious factual errors in the tweet by the Amnesty. Amnesty had also worked to settle Rohingyas in India for vote banks by generating sympathy for Rohingyas in minds of Indians.
- Amnesty also launched a global campaign to gain sympathy about Jihadis and they openly supported Jihadis.
India has a rich and pluralistic democratic culture with a free press, independent judiciary and tradition of vibrant domestic debate. The people of India has unprecedented trust in democratic functioning of the country. Amnesty failure to comply with local regulations does not entitle them to make comments on the democratic and plural character of India.
Amnesty International India
Dhruv Tomar
Lexcliq
