New Delhi: A number of prominent citizens and activists on Friday rubbished an Intelligence Bureau report which had said funding of several NGOs was "cleverly disguised" as donations for issues like human rights, but instead they were involved in stalling developmental projects.
Former Navy Chief Admiral L Ramdas, former Director General of Tripura Police KS Subramanian, senior columnist Praful Bidwai, anti-nuclear activist SP Udayakumar and number of other activists debunked the IB report, terming it "baseless" and aimed at "discrediting popular protests".
Ramdas, a Magsaysay award winner, said the IB report was leaked to "demean the individuals" while Subramanian, doubting the content, said the report should be placed before Parliament and there should be a debate on it.
The IB report to the Prime Minister's Office had said that funds to certain NGOs were mostly used to fuel protests against developmental projects relating to coal, bauxite mining, oil exploration, nuclear plants and linking of rivers, resulting in stalling or slowing down of these projects.
The report named two anti-nuclear organisations-National Alliance of Anti Nuclear Movements (NAAM) and People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)-- spearheaded by US-educated SP Udayakumar who allegedly received "unsolicited contract" from a US university.
Udayakumar termed the report as "non-sensible and baseless" and said that by leaking this report, "they have undermined my security and that of my family". He also refuted that Sonntag Rainer Hermann, a German national who was deported from Chennai in 2012, was his contact as reported by the IB.
Udaykumar said that Hermann is not his "contact in Germany" and rather was an acquaintance from Nagercoil, his hometown in Tamil Nadu. "Knowing somebody does not make him my sponsor. This is an effort to discourage popular protests from opposing dangerous projects," the activist said.
On the IB report mentioning that Hermann's laptop contained scanned map of India with 16 nuclear plants (existing and proposed), Udaykumar said that he did not receive any information, maps or monetary helps from Hermann. Senior columnist Praful Bidwai said that the report was a "cock-and-bull story" based on "false baseless allegations, most of them untrue and innuendos which try to establish guilt by mere associations."
"CNDP (Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace), of which Achina Vanaik and I are founder members, takes no money at all from foreign sources, corporate sources, government sources and is entirely funded by our own individual contributions," he said.
Achin Vanaik, retired Professor of International Relations in Delhi University, wondered why the report was sent to PMO when "as per procedure it should have gone to the Home Ministry".
"Both this government and the last government share a similar economic perspective. And this government's PM recently said that they want to go full speed ahead with what they consider development, which in itself is a very contentious issue about what constitutes development and we are very concerned that the ground is being prepared," Vanaik said.
He alleged that a ground is being prepared to "discredit a whole range of popular activities and resistances" and to weaken them. Talking about activities of CNDP, he said, "We are Indians and we are opposed to nuclear arms and energy not just in the country but world over."
He said that CNDP does not get money from anybody and is funded by individuals. He categorically denied that the CNDP gets any foreign funding including from the Greenpeace. Another activist MG Devasahayam, a retired IAS officer and power policy expert, termed the report as an "absolute conspiracy" which has neither "head nor tail".
The IB report had said that in the last few years, the country has been facing problems from some NGOs which have stepped up efforts to encourage growth retarding campaigns in India, focused on extractive industries including anti-coal, anti-uranium and anti-bauxite mining and anti-nuclear issues.
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