Why did Amnesty International Shut Down Indian Operations?

On the 10th of October, the government of India withdrew its funding of Amnesty International (AI) - an international organisation that aims at ensuring human rights for all citizens. Such a step had been taken after conferring that the organisation had been receiving funds from abroad that are in violation of Indian laws, particularly the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) which is responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India, following an FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), filed on November 5, 2019, on charges of an alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), had initiated a separate probe last year. The ED has now converted the preliminary inquiry into an ECIR (the equivalent of an FIR) alleging money laundering charges and froze all of AI India’s bank accounts. The ED has invoked the Prevention of Money Laundering Act this time. It is to be noted that in December 2019, the government banned 14,500 NGOs for receiving foreign funds, thus it is clear that the government has acted without any bias against Amnesty. In a press statement, AI’s India office has said, “On 10 September 2020, Amnesty International India came to know that all its bank accounts were completely frozen by the Enforcement Directorate bringing most of the work of the human rights organization to a grinding halt.” It blamed ‘reprisal’ from the government for winding down its operations, adding, “This is latest in the incessant witch-hunt of human rights organizations by the Government of India over unfounded and motivated allegations.” However, the allegations that the Indian government has taken such an unequivocal step to prevent amnesty from releasing its report on grave human rights violations in India are being countered with legal provisions.

On October 25, 2018, AI India endured a 10-hour-long raid as a group of officers from the ED entered its premises and locked the gates behind them. Most of the information and documents that were demanded during the search were already available in the public domain or filed with the relevant government authorities. The residence of the then executive director Aakar Patel was also raided. Not just the ED, the Department of Income Tax was roped in too. In early 2019, the IT department began sending “investigative letters” to more than 30 small regular donors. While the department did not find any irregularities, the investigating agencies’ move adversely affected the fundraising campaigns, AI India has said. The same year, in June, the organisation was denied permission to hold the press conference launch in Srinagar to release its third ‘Lawless Law’ report on the misuse and abuse of the Public Safety Act in Jammu and Kashmir. The organisation had to release the report digitally later. On October 22, 2019, the organisation’s international office testified in a US Congressional hearing on the situation of human rights in South Asia, with a specific focus on Jammu and Kashmir since the unilateral dilution of Article 370 of the Constitution of India. Even then, the ED froze the organization’s bank accounts. As a result, AI India says it was forced to let go of a number of its staff, adversely affecting its work in India including with the marginalised communities. Each time the organisation put out a statement or took a public stand, they have been hounded. AI India points to an incident on April 13, this year when they had called on the Uttar Pradesh government to stop its intimidation of journalists through the use of repressive laws during a pandemic. Within two days, the Cyber Crime Police Station in Lucknow notified Twitter to furnish information about Amnesty International India’s Twitter account @AIIndia. This Twitter handle, Amnesty says, is used to monitor and analyse developments in international human rights law and Indian constitutional and criminal law related to human rights issues.

In November 2019, CBI filed a case against Amnesty, alleging it received ₹36 crores in funding without the mandatory permission required under the FCRA and raided its offices. In August 2016, a sedition case was filed against the organisation, furthermore, investigative agencies have alleged that the fund-raising model of Amnesty International India was in violation of FCRA that amounts to money laundering. The reserve bank of India had also issued a lookout to all banks that “Amnesty should be put in the category for prior reference. Before receiving money from outside India they would need to be in the prior permission category. There has been shifty money transfer to the companies and there is suspected flow of money into the trust of Amnesty International.” The organisation had received permission under Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) only once and that too, 20 years ago (19.12.2000) to obtain foreign funds. Since then Amnesty International, despite its repeated applications, has been denied FCRA approval by successive governments since as per law it is not eligible to get such an approval, the government clarified. Owing to these illegal practices of Amnesty, the previous government had also rejected the repeated applications of Amnesty to receive funds from overseas. This bipartisan and purely legal approach towards Amnesty, under different governments, makes it clear that the entire fault lies in the dubious processes adopted by Amnesty to secure funds for its operations.

Despite being left in the lurch, several employees have come forward to work as volunteers for a few months to ensure that the pending work is completed. “This was a sudden decision but we saw it coming for a long time,” said one campaigner, who has been associated with the organisation for several years. The organisation, however, is particularly concerned about letting go of such a huge number of employees during the COVID-19 crisis.

The organisation in recent years had been working on five crucial projects—business and human rights, individuals at risk, gender-based violence, human rights education, and access to justice in Jammu and Kashmir. Besides these full-fledged projects, AI India has also issued statements from time to time on issues involving human rights violations. Their most recent contribution was two exhaustive reports on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and the riots in Northeast Delhi. On August 5, 2020, marking the first anniversary of the dilution of Article 370 of the Constitution of India, the organisation released an update on the situation of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir. And within days, on August 28, 2020, six-months after the riots in Delhi, AI India released an investigative brief on the complicity of Delhi police in the violence, which claimed the lives of at least 53 people, mostly from the minority Muslim community. The release of the two publications, the organisation says, “Has provided fresh impetus to the establishment to harass and intimidate Amnesty International India through its investigative agencies.” Julie Verhaar, the acting secretary-general of Amnesty International, in a press statement, has said, “This is an egregious and shameful act by the Indian Government, which forces us to cease the crucial human rights work of Amnesty International India for now. However, this does not mark the end of our firm commitment to, and engagement in, the struggle for human rights in India. We will be working resolutely to determine how Amnesty International can continue to play our part within the human rights movement in India for years to come.”

However, the sole reason for the government of India to take such a grave step is Non-compliance with laws and continuous suspicions of agencies regarding the illegal working of Amnesty International in India. In order to prevent such instances from being repeated, On 21st September, the government of India passed a bill that brought about a new amendment to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act to make furnishing of aadhar numbers by office bearers of NGOs mandatory for registration. This act has been passed to ensure transparency and promote the interest of Non- Governmental Organisations that want to do good work in the country. This act in no way aims to go against any organisation it rather wants to ease communication between the government and organisations.

Julie Verhaar, in a statement, added that “The Amnesty movement is very proud of the vital work carried out by our outstanding colleagues in India regardless of the risks they faced, including their unequivocal calls for accountability for the actions of the authorities during the Delhi riots and in Jammu and Kashmir and their work on gender-based violence.” Sadly, Verhaar says, this “enormously important work standing up for victims” has been met with the “heavy-handed tactics that Indian civil society has become increasingly familiar with – part of the government’s drive to silence critical voices and stoke a climate of fear”.