Civil Society Groups Flay Government for Shrinking Democratic Space

NEW DELHI: Coming down heavy on the Government's policies against the civil society groups, various NGOs came together under a singular banner of 'Janadhikar Sangharsh Samiti' (JSS) and organized a protest meeting against the "State's frontal attack on Freedom of expression, association and dissent".

The Modi government recently cancelled licenses of nearly 9,000 NGOs receiving foreign funds, claiming violation under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). FCRA was the hot-bed at the protest meeting, with almost all the panel members criticizing the undemocratic attitude of the government towards civil society groups.

Priya Pillai, the Greenpeace activist who was offloaded from a flight to London this January talked about the seven accounts of Greenpeace that were frozen last month by the government pertaining to FCRA. Apart from the foreign funding, the domestic funding to the NGO has also been blocked which comprised 70% of Greenpeace India's total funds. Questioning the validity of the government's actions against the NGOs Pillai called it a systematic approach symbolic of what is being done to the civil societies in India.

"This is not Greenpeace's battle alone, what is happening here is that the democratic space for dissent is being shrunk. The government is deciding what we eat, what we speak, what our opinion should be; it is not NGO Vs. the state, it is not a fight for funding, this is a fight to reclaim the political democratic space for dissent", Pillai said.

On being labeled as anti-national, she said, "We have been put into boxes. There are groups that work for forest rights, tribal rights, rights of communities etc, are all branded as anti-development and anti-national because we are stopping projects of corporates. Meanwhile the government is ideally diluting laws. They are trying to bring changes in each and every legislation that spoke for people and the beneficiary of all this is corporates in the country."

Wanting to drop Social Impact assessment from the Land Acquisition Bill, trying to eliminate consent of tribal population before diversion of forest land under the Forests Act, all this has lead various social and environmental associations to took to streets damning the government for its pro-corporate strategies. And therefore their alarming pitch against the state is what deemed as the cause by these societies for the government to now attack their funding through FCRA.

But the issue is not limited to land ordinance or Forests Act alone. Achin Vanaik of Coalition of Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) said that, "...in the last 25 years the top level of democracy is becoming more and more authoritarian. Since it has been going on for so long you can't blame only this government though this particular government has its own character. This is not a country of majority. India is a nation of minorities and by minorities here I mean the Dalits, Adivasis, fisher folks, landless as well as religious minorities." Blaming the economic policy that is now becoming a weapon destroying India's natural resources, Vanaik criticized the government's linear approach to development, disregarding all sorts of damage done to all sorts of people in the nation. With a sole ideology to swell globalization and make India stronger, Vanaik said is in accordance with the aspirations of the rich and the powerful only.

"Nuclear is the new holy cow", said Anil Choudhary, co-ordinator of Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF). He continued, "...nobody can talk about it(Nuclear). No questions should be asked. When it comes genetically modified food, same case- we are not suppose to express. Just agree with your government. Nuclear department in India is worse than PWD, but still the most secretive department in the country."

Javed Anand of Sabrang trust, with which Teesta Setalvad is also associated, called for a rescue from the 'authoritarian' attitude of the government. He said, "If we are being deemed as anti-nationalist for raising our voices that are different from those of the government then we'll happily admit ourselves to be anti-nationalist. Just because we have something to say that our government does not approve of doesn't mean we can't say it".

Kabir, a mumbai-based lawyer who has been working with the JSS emphasized the need of 'judicial review' when it comes to judgments and proceedings of cases like Teesta's lawyer being denied anticipatory bail. The role of judiciary stands at a pedestal because that is where a victim looks up to for justice.