Amnesty linked all government actions to its critical reports of the government
New Delhi:
Hours after Amnesty International declared that it would halt operations in India and alleged a witch hunt for its recent reports raising questions about rights violations, the government said that “human rights cannot be an excuse to challenge the law of the country “and” glossy statements on humanitarian work “were an attempt to divert attention from their illegal activities.
“All the brilliant statements about humanitarian work and speaking truth to power are nothing more than a ploy to divert attention from their activities which clearly contravene established Indian laws. Those statements are also an attempt to strangely influence the course from multi-agency investigations into irregularities and illegalities carried out in recent years, “the government said in a statement tonight, accusing the global rights watchdog of illegally receiving foreign funds for years.
“Amnesty is free to continue humanitarian work in India, as many other organizations are doing. However, India, by established law, does not allow interference in the internal political debates of entities funded by foreign donations. This law is it applies equally to everyone and will also apply to Amnesty International. “
This morning Amnesty claimed that her accounts were frozen earlier this month, forcing her to lay off her staff in India and halt all of her ongoing campaign and investigative work.
“The complete freezing of Amnesty International India bank accounts by the Indian government, which became known on September 10, stops all work being done by the organization,” the organization said.
“This is the latest in the relentless witch hunt of human rights organizations by the Indian government over unsubstantiated and motivated allegations,” Amnesty said, claiming that it had complied with all Indian and international laws.
Amnesty linked all the government’s actions to its criticism of the government; their recent reports had raised questions about alleged rights violations during the February riots in Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir after the repeal of Article 370.
The government called Amnesty’s statements “unfortunate, exaggerated and far from the truth.”
“India has a rich and pluralistic democratic culture with a free press, an independent judiciary and a tradition of vibrant internal debate. The people of India have placed unprecedented trust in the current government. Failure to comply with local regulations by part of Amnesty does not give them the right to comment on the democratic and plural character of India, “the Interior Ministry statement said.
According to the Interior Ministry, Amnesty International had received permission under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) only once and that too, 20 years ago. Since then, successive governments had denied Amnesty International approval of the FCRA because it was not eligible, the ministry said.
But to bypass the FCRA, Amnesty UK “sent large amounts of money to four entities registered in India, classifying them as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI),” the statement said.
A significant amount of foreign money was also remitted to Amnesty (India) without the approval of the Home Office under the FCRA.
The ministry said that due to Amnesty’s illegal practices, the previous government (UPA led by Congress) had also rejected their repeated requests for funding from abroad. “This had led Amnesty to suspend its operations in India once during that period as well. This bipartisan and purely legal approach towards Amnesty, under different governments, makes it clear that all the blame lies in the dubious processes adopted by Amnesty to secure funds for its operations, “the government said.
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