Amnesty Shuts India Office, Blaming Government ‘Witch-Hunt’
Amnesty International said its India unit’s bank accounts have been suspended earlier this month.
(Bloomberg) -- Human rights watchdog Amnesty International said it has been forced to halt its India operations amid “constant harassment” from government agencies, including the freezing of its bank accounts in the country.
“This is latest in the incessant witch-hunt of human rights organizations by the government of India over unfounded and motivated allegations,” Amnesty International India said in a statement on Tuesday.
Amnesty International said its India unit’s bank accounts have been suspended earlier this month and it was compelled to let go of staff and halt its research and campaigning activities in the country. The campaigns that drew the government’s ire included calls for transparency and accountability for human rights violations during the riots in Delhi earlier this year and the scrapping of autonomy in Kashmir, it said.
The federal home ministry said that the human rights organization had indulged in “illegal practices” by circumventing the country’s foreign exchange rules.
“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,” the government said in a statement. It added that previous governments had also rejected Amnesty’s applications to receive funds from overseas and it had suspended its Indian operations then too.
“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,” the ministry added.
The rights group has faced multiple investigations in India over the last few years and the government has said that its probes were looking into allegations that Amnesty misused local laws about receiving and using foreign funding. The organization said it was in full compliance with all applicable Indian and international laws.
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