Karnataka: Cong govt follows NDA's footsteps with in-depth probe against NGOs

The Karnataka Congress government is following in the footsteps of the NDA government in the Centre and has asked all NGOs in the state to give details of foreign funding, according to an Indian Express report. The report states that “a detailed 33-point checklist prepared by the Internal Security Department (ISD) of the state police also seeks information on the NGOs’ ‘role in development’, and on their involvement in issues concerning forests, wildlife, tribal communities, and e-waste in Bangalore.” From the list of points made in the police form, it appears that the questioning will extend beyond just concerns of foreign-funding. The head of ISD Amar K Pandey confirmed the same to the paper. According to the IE report, “Congress MLA and former Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar claimed in the Karnataka assembly that since 2006, NGOs in the state had received Rs 1,069 crore from abroad,” and had said that his numbers were based on" intelligence sources." He also received support from other MLAs in the assembly. Thanks to such claims, the Home minister in the state K J George announced the measures against the NGO and has “promised to table the ISD’s report in the next session of the assembly,” adds the report. According to a Times of India report George was quoted as saying: “I don’t say all NGOs are bad. Some are bogus and are involved in misuse of funds and corruption. We will probe all NGOs and take action against those found guilty.” The Karnataka’s government order comes after an an Intelligence Bureau report in June this year, had said that NGOs funded by donors based in the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries are using “people-centric issues to create an environment which lends itself to stalling development projects.” It had also claimed that this ‘anti-national’ role of NGOs had negatively affected India’s GDP by 2-3 percent per annum. [caption id=“attachment_1571347” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP.[/caption] The 23-page Intelligence Bureau (IB) report titled ‘Concerted efforts by select foreign-funded NGOs to take down Indian development projects’ had named many eminent Indians who either wittingly or unwittingly supported these NGOs, with or without financial consideration. Some of the top names on the IB report list were, Swami Agnivesh, Praful Bidwai, Achin Vanaik, Admiral (Retd) Ramdas, Lalitha Ramdas, Medha Patkar, Neeraj Jain, Banwarilal Sharma, Karuna Raina, Fr Thomas Kocherry, Arti Choksey and MG Devasahayam. While the need to tackle ‘bogus’ NGOs sounds all fine, what is unclear is whether the probe will end up in action being taken taken against those groups who are often at odds with the government’s agenda. Clearly the probe is not just about looking into the finances of the NGOs.  It is evident from the police’s statement that they will exploring the views that NGOs have on certain key issues, like development. Given that the state wants to know the stand of the NGOs as well makes it clear that this isn’t just a probe to tackle corruption. In the case of the IB report , activists had expressed concerned that it could could be used as an excuse to scuttle dissent. Now it looks that the Karnataka state government is sticking to the NDA line by launching an ‘in-depth probe’ against the NGOs.