NEW DELHI (UCAN): Amnesty International has announced on September 29 that it is halting its operations in India. Known for its international presence and defense of human rights against authoritarian governments, the group blamed the end of its Indian operations on government reprisal.
“The continuing crackdown on Amnesty International India over the last two years and the complete freezing of bank accounts is not accidental,” it said in a statement that announced the closure.
“The constant harassment by government agencies” including the federal government’s Enforcement Directorate that probes economic offenses “is a result of our unequivocal calls for transparency in the government, more recently for accountability of the Delhi police and the government of India regarding the grave human rights violations in the Delhi riots and Jammu and Kashmir,” the statement said.
On September 10, the Enforcement Directorate told Amnesty International India that “all its bank accounts were completely frozen” by making the agency unable to take money for salaries or other expenses.
“This is latest in the incessant witch hunt of human rights organisations by the government of India over unfounded and motivated allegations,” Amnesty International India said.
It said that in 2018 a massive 10-hour-long raid was conducted by the Enforcement Directorate, then in early 2019, the Department of Income Tax started sending investigative letters to more than 30 small regular donors.
The group said the shut down despite their complying with all applicable Indian and international laws. The freezing of the account meant all the work being done by the organisation would come to “a grinding halt.”
Amnesty has been compelled to let go of staff in India and pause all its ongoing campaign and research work, the statement said.
For its human rights work in India, it operates by raising funds domestically. More than four million Indians have supported Amnesty International India’s work in the last eight years, and around 100,000 Indians have made financial contributions, it claimed.
“The fact that the government is now portraying this lawful fundraising model as money laundering is evidence that the overbroad legal framework is maliciously activated when human rights activists and groups challenge the government’s grave inactions and excesses,” it said.
Opposition Congress leaders were quick to criticise the government for the plight of the rights group.
Lawmaker and former federal minister, Shashi Tharoor, said government “actions like this both undermine our reputation as a democracy and vitiate our soft power.”
The government of prime minister, Narendra Modi, piloted a bill in parliament in September seeking to tighten the rules on overseas funding in a move that could adversely affect thousands of social workers, including Catholic organisations. Critics say it is aimed at helping the government tightly monitor organisations and silence criticism.
