As a first step to fast-tracking
development high on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda, the Intelligence
Bureau (IB) has submitted a classified document identifying several
foreign-funded non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are “negatively
impacting economic development”.
“A significant number of Indian NGOs
(funded by some donors based in the US, the UK, Germany, The Netherlands and
Scandinavian countries) have been noticed to be using people centric issues to
create an environment which lends itself to stalling development projects,”
says the IB report marked to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
“The negative impact on GDP growth is
assessed to be 2-3 per cent per annum,” says the June 3 report, identifying
seven sectors/ projects that got stalled because of NGO-created agitations
against nuclear power plants, uranium mines, coal-fired power plants, farm
biotechnology, mega industrial projects, hydroelectric plants and extractive
industries.
While detailing what it calls
“anti-development” activities by the NGOs during 2011-13, the 21-page
report highlights their plans for 2014
and the areas that would come under pressure. These include a campaign against
palm oil imports from Indonesia and disposal of e-waste of Indian IT firms,
organising construction workers in urban areas, protests against identified
projects such as Gujarat’s Special Investment Regions, Par Tapi Narmada River
Interlinking Project and the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor.
The report says that while caste
discrimination, human rights and big dams were earlier chosen by international
organisations to discredit India at global forums, the recent shift in the
choice of issues was to encourage “growth-retarding campaigns” focused on
extractive industries, genetically-modified organisms and foods, climate change
and anti-nuclear issues.
According to the report, the funding for
such campaigns came from foreign donors under charitable garb for issues
ranging from protection of human rights, violence against women, caste
discrimination, religious freedom etc or to provide a “just deal” to the
project-affected displaced persons or for protection of livelihood of
indigenous people.
The NGOs become the central players in
setting the agenda, drafting documents, writing in the media, highlighting
scholars-turned-activists and lobbying diplomats and government, it says.
“These foreign donors lead local NGOs to provide field reports which are used
to build a record against India and serve as tools for the strategic foreign
policy interests of the Western government,” adds the report.
“The strategy serves its purpose when the
funded Indian NGOs provide reports, which are used to internationalise and
publicise the alleged violations in international fora. All the above is used
to build a record against a country or an individual in order to keep the
entity under pressure and under a state of under-development,” says the IB
report.
Four NGOs were put under the scanner in
2012 for allegedly fuelling protests against the Kudankulam nuclear project in
Tamil Nadu. The accounts of several Indian NGOs were put in the watch list with
regard to allegations of funds diversion, after a discreet probe by security
agencies with the help of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Central
Economic Intelligence Bureau.
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Our take on the issue:
In the garb of development, we may see many NGO's targeted that do not fall into this category of NGO's stalling development, if there is such a category at all. Many NGO's who have done proven good work but may belong to minorities or are against the interest of the industrial lobby may find the government clamping down on them using this "classified" report.
