New Delhi: Dismissing the allegations made by Amnesty International, the Ministry of Home Affairs has said that the stand taken and statements made by Amnesty International are unfortunate, exaggerated and far from truth. Countering Amnesty's allegations of a government "witch hunt,"  MHA said that India does not allow interference in domestic political debates by entities "funded by foreign donations". It has presented the facts of the matter as follows:
  • Amnesty International had received permission under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) only once and that too twenty years ago (19.12.2000). 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.
  • However, 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.
  • 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," MHA said in its statement. "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 statement read.  "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 said. MHA has said that Amnesty’s failure to comply with local regulations does not entitle them to make comments on the democratic and plural character of India. "Amnesty is free to continue humanitarian work in India, as is being done by many other organizations. However, India, by settled law, does not allow interference in domestic political debates by entities funded by foreign donations," it said. Earlier in the day, Amnesty  said it has halted its operations in India after its bank accounts were completely frozen by the government bringing all its work to a halt. In a statement released on Tuesday, the organisation alleged "harassment" by government agencies. It said it was forced to let go of its staff in India and pause all its ongoing campaign and research work.