The Union Home Ministry has ordered the Delhi Police to probe the leakage of a controversial Intelligence Bureau report that found fault with a section of NGOs for allegedly using foreign funds to slowdown India's growth story.
Sources said the move is interesting, as a police will be probing into the leakage of an IB report, on which there are conflicting claims. One section believes that the IB itself leaked it while others said the media got the report from a Union Ministry.The probe by Delhi Police also comes after an internal probe by the IB.
After the probe, Delhi Police will submit a report to the Home Ministry, which will decide the future course of action.
The 21-page “secret” report — NGO Activism against Development Projects in India: A Review — was prepared by a senior official and sent to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Home Ministry, the National Security Adviser, the Finance Minister and others in the first week of June.
In the report, the IB had accused NGOs like Greenpeace of opposing several development projects in India and “negatively impacting economic development”. It had described Greenpeace “a threat to national economic security”. Greenpeace refuted the charges of stalling development, saying these are “conscious attempt to crush and stifle” opposing voices.
In a statement on Wednesday, Greenpeace said it was “shocked and dismayed” over the arbitrary manner in which the government has attempted to muzzle voices of dissent in democracy in the name of financial scrutiny. It described the move for a Delhi Police probe as “too little and too late”.
“Greenpeace India has followed all laws of the land and is open to any kind of scrutiny.
But in the absence of any communication from the government the NGO is forced to believe that the government is attempting to malign and discredit Greenpeace India in order to proceed smoothly with its pro-corporate agenda,” it said.
Greenpeace India reiterated that it did not received any official communication from the Home Ministry and demanded that the government should immediately respond to its queries. It will also file an RTI applications seeking details of what triggered the actions against Greenpeace India.