India cancels licenses of nearly 9,000 charities

NEW DELHI: India has canceled the registration of nearly 9,000 charities for failing to declare details of donations from abroad, as New Delhi tightens surveillance on foreign-funded non-governmental organizations in the country.
The crackdown comes days after the government suspended the license of Greenpeace India and put US-based Ford Foundation on a security watch list, ordering government approval of any of its activities in the country.
A “cancelation order” issued by the Home Ministry and uploaded to its website said the government had canceled the registration of 8,975 associations because they did not declare details of their foreign funding for three years starting from 2009-10.
The order, dated April 6, did not name the groups whose licenses were canceled but said they had not filed the “mandatory annual returns.”
Home Ministry officials were not immediately available for a comment. Critics have argued that the government’s decision to restrict the movement of foreign funding to local charities is an attempt to stifle the voices of those who oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic agenda.
Last June, India’s intelligence service said Greenpeace and other lobby groups were damaging the country’s economy by campaigning against power projects, mining and genetically modified food.
While Greenpeace denied the allegations, earlier this month India barred the organization from receiving foreign funds by suspending its license for six months and freezing its accounts.