Human Rights cannot be an excuse for defying the law of the land – MHA’s scathing response to Amnesty’s charges exposes the illegal practices of the dubious NGO

Ever since the dubious NGO Amnesty International halted its India operations after government of India frorze its bank accounts, has been crying hoarse and accusing the Modi government of ‘witch-hunt’. In a stinging response, the Ministry of Home Affairs, GOI has issued a press release exposing the shenanigans of Amnesty India.

Putting out the facts regarding the dubious financial dealings of Amnesty India, the MHA press release said that the NGO had received permission under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) only once and that too in the year 2000. “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”, said the MHA.

It further says that in order to circumvent the FCRA regulations, Amnesty UK remitted large amounts of money to four entities registered in India, by classifying it as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). A significant amount of foreign money was also remitted to Amnesty (India) without MHA’s approval under FCRA. “This mala fide rerouting of money was in contravention of extant legal provisions”, says MHA.

“Owing to these illegal practices of Amnesty, the previous government had also rejected the repeated applications of Amnesty to receive funds from overseas. This had led Amnesty to suspend its India operations once during that period as well. 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”, says MHA’s scathing response.

The press release further says that all the glossy statements about humanitarian work and speaking truth to power are nothing but a ploy to divert attention from their activities which were in clear contravention of laid down Indian laws. “Such statements are also an attempt to extraneously influence the course of investigations by multiple agencies into the irregularities and illegalities carried out over the last few years”, it says.

It then clarifies that Amnesty is free to continue humanitarian work in India, as is being done by many other organizations provided it follows the laws of the land and does not interfere in domestic political debates using entities funded by foreign donations. “This law applies equally to all and it shall apply to Amnesty International as well”, says MHA.

“India has a rich and pluralistic democratic culture with a free press, independent judiciary and tradition of vibrant domestic debate. The people of India have placed unprecedented trust in the current government. Amnesty’s failure to comply with local regulations does not entitle them to make comments on the democratic and plural character of India”, concludes the MHA’s stinging response to the charges leveled by the NGO.