[The IB report is apparently the very first move to discredit, intimidate and muzzle all possible voices of dissent, well in advance, against the policy of the incumbent new regime to open up the country's economy for unfettered corporate loot, in the name of "development", overriding all procedural norms, environmental concerns and livelihood issues of the marginalised people, what the much vaunted "Gujarat model" essentially encapsulates.
While the first two pieces reproduced below report on the protests by the activists targeted for vilification, the the last one gives a brief sketch of the content of the leaked "secret" report.]
Intelligence Bureau report raises fears of repression
OUR BUREAUNGOs say report to muzzle dissent; refute allegations of foreign funding
NEW DELHI, JUNE 13:
A report by the Intelligence Bureau (IB), targeting non-Governmental organisations, is raising fears among activists that attempts are being made to muzzle dissent.
“We are very much concerned that the ground is being prepared to oppose and to justify discrediting a whole range of popular activities and resistances and to weaken them by highlighting and taking out supposed fallacies of NGOs,” Achin Vanaik, member of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (India) said.
Vanaik has been named in the report, along with many well known activists, such as political analyst and anti-nuclear activist Praful Bidwai, MG Devasahayam, SP Uday Kumar, Medha Patkar and Karuna Raina. The IB report has reportedly been submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office. Uday Kumar, an anti-nuclear activist, said the report has undermined not just his integrity, but also his safety and he could take legal recourse against the IB.
‘Ánti-national’
The report, which Business Line has access to, mentions several international organisations such as Greenpeace, Action Aid and even Amnesty, besides Indian groups as well as individuals, has alleged that NGOs, which have been termed “anti-national”, are effecting India’s GDP growth by two to three per cent. However, Bidwai countered this by saying research has shown that the cost of environmental degradation, which is the agenda for most of the NGOs mentioned, is costing India 5-7 per cent of its GDP.
Devasahayam, a retired IAS officer and power policy expert, who was involved in protests against the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu, said the report was baseless and the NGOs were actually carrying out the agenda of the Government itself.
The report alleges that these NGOs are being funded by foreign entities and are derailing the country’s “economic security” with their campaigns against developmental projects such as nuclear energy, coal mining, power plants, hydel projects and others, which have been criticised for not being in line with the agenda for sustainable development.
However, Bidwai refuted the allegation of foreign funding and said CNDP and most other NGOs named in the report are funded through domestic sources only.
The report also says Greenpeace plans to campaign against import of palm oil from Indonesia and dumping of e-waste by IT firms, both of which are seen as major environmental concerns globally.
(This article was published on June 13, 2014)
II.
IB Report on NGOs Comes Under Atack From Activists
NEW DELHI | JUN 13, 2014 A number of prominent citizens and activists today rubbished an Intelligence Bureau report which had said funding of several NGOs was "cleverly disguised" as donations for issues like human rights, but instead they were involved in stalling developmental projects. Former Navy Chief Admiral L Ramdas, former Director General of Tripura Police K S Subramanian, senior columnist Praful Bidwai, anti-nuclear activist S P Udayakumar and number of other activists debunked the IB report, terming it "baseless" and aimed at "discrediting popular protests". Ramdas, a Magsaysay award winner, said the IB report was leaked to "demean the individuals" while Subramanian, doubting the content, said the report should be placed before Parliament and there should be a debate on it. The IB report to the Prime Minister's Office had said funds to certain NGOs were mostly used to fuel protests against developmental projects relating to coal, bauxite mining, oil exploration, nuclear plants and linking of rivers, resulting in stalling or slowing down of these projects. The report named two anti-nuclear organisations--National Alliance of Anti Nuclear Movements (NAAM) and People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)-- spearheaded by US-educated S P Udayakumar who allegedly received "unsolicited contract" from a US university. Udayakumar termed the report as "non-sensible and baseless" and said that by leaking this report, "they have undermined my security and that of my family". He also refuted that Sonntag Rainer Hermann, a German national who was deported from Chennai in 2012, was his contact as reported by the IB. Udaykumar said Hermann is not his "contact in Germany" and rather was an acquaintance from Nagercoil, his hometown in Tamil Nadu. "Knowing somebody does not make him my sponsor. This is an effort to discourage popular protests from opposing dangerous projects," the activist said. On the IB report mentioning that Hermann's laptop contained scanned map of India with 16 nuclear plants (existing and proposed), Udaykumar said he did not receive any information, maps or monetary helps from Hermann. Senior columnist Praful Bidwai said that the report was a "cock-and-bull story" based on "false baseless allegations, most of them untrue and innuendos which try to establish guilt by mere associations." "CNDP (Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace), of which Achina Vanaik and I are founder members, takes no money at all from foreign sources, corporate sources, government sources and is entirely funded by our own individual contributions," he said. Achin Vanaik, retired Professor of International Relations in Delhi University, wondered why the report was sent to PMO when "as per procedure it should have gone to the Home Ministry". "Both this government and the last government share a similar economic perspective. And this government's PM recently said that they want to go full speed ahead with what they consider development, which in itself is a very contentious issue about what constitutes development and we are very concerned that the ground is being prepared," Vanaik said. He alleged that a ground is being prepared to "discredit a whole range of popular activities and resistances" and to weaken them. Talking about activities of CNDP, he said, "We are Indians and we are opposed to nuclear arms and energy not just in the country but world over." He said that CNDP does not get money from anybody and is funded by individuals. He categorically denied that the CNDP gets any foreign funding including from the Greenpeace. Another activist M G Devasahayam, a retired IAS officer and power policy expert, termed the report as an "absolute conspiracy" which has neither "head nor tail". The IB report had said that in the last few years, the country has been facing problems from some NGOs which have stepped up efforts to encourage growth retarding campaigns in India, focused on extractive industries including anti-coal, anti-uranium and anti-bauxite mining and anti-nuclear issues. III. From Swami Agnivesh to Left wingers, IB report names manyThe 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.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 Kumars German contact and Ohio State University funding to the Kudankulam anti-nuclear protests.The 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), Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), Peoples Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), Greenpeace, Indian Social Action Forum, and the Peoples 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 Indias 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 Indias 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 Indias 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 Greenpeaces 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 womens 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. |
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Peace Is Doable
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