India has potential to lead the world in saving the environment but it is being demonized
Shivang Satya Gupta
Jammu, April 12: The debate on climate change and environment safety is gaining momentum by day even as environmentalists around the world are preparing for the global meet on Conference of Parties on UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in France in December 2015 where India is likely to face lot of ire from the environmentalists.
The image of India that these environmentalists have painted around the world is of a nation that does not believe in saving the environment by doing little and not singing on the dotted lines provided by the west for which a number of organizations are said to be working over time.
However with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs in India now, the scene is slowly changing and he is leading from the front to tell the world to stop preaching and listen to India on climate change.
In his endeavor to clear the demonized image painted by the so called environmentalists he has taken a number of steps telling the world leaders about the Indian contribution to environment since times immemorial.
In this regard his latest diplomatic initiative was to gift a special painting to president of France Francois Hollande titled ‘Tree of Life’ reflecting traditional societal respect for nature in India.
The message behind gifting it seemed to be the emphasis on sustenance of life and clean environment ahead of the global meet on climate change that France will be hosting in December this year.
“The tree, as a divine gift central to human life, is a recurring element in Indian artistic practice. The Tree of Life, with multiple roots and branches like a banyan tree, is a motif for a tree’s benevolence, fruit, seeds, shelter, healing, procreation and regeneration faculties that sustain life and clean the environment,” a statement issued by the government said.
However there are still many organizations that seem to be working overtime to distort that image at the behest of the corporate world and anti-India lobbies including some Indian rival political parties.
The latest being the Greenpeace India arm that has been accused of misusing the funds to stall the development in India by none other than the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in its report on funding of NGOs in India.
To check the fund misuse the MHA has frozen all the seven bank accounts of the Indian arm of Greenpeace and suspending its accounts on the grounds that it was encouraging anti-development campaigns.
The Ministry also accused Greenpeace India of paying high salaries to top officials and consultants without consent of the parent organization.
A report quoted the home ministry’s dossier on the NGO finding Greenpeace India guilty of using funds to influence Indian government policies and inviting foreign activists to ‘train and equip’ Indian activists in protests.
The Ministry took note of the fact that one of its consultants, Pankaj Singh, had contested as an AAP candidate from Mahaan in Madhya Pradesh during the Lok Sabha polls and after losing, was working for the NGO while also working for the party in Delhi. It also pointed out that the NGO had invited and paid for the travel of a UK-based channel to make a documentary on tribal displacement by the Mahaan coal project and a drone had been used for filming without permission from the defence ministry.
However Greenpeace International has called the Narendra Modi government’s action against its Indian arm of suspending the latter’s FCRA licence as a “harassment campaign” that is “suppressing the voice” of Indians, even as Greenpeace India said it would challenge the move in court.
The question is why and how the foreign NGOs working in India for the so called climate change and environmental issues are being allowed to use this soil to stall the development on the name of environment and whether the Greenpeace is actually a peaceful organization as far as India is concerned.
Going by the track record of India administration of ignoring the people and organizations working against it the latest report by MHA seems a warning bell that all is not well with these so called Greenpeace and other environmental organizations.
Another aspect is that with India having its old tradition of worshiping the nature do the foreign nations have the authority to demonize it when they themselves have failed to check rampant pollution and degradation of environment on their own soil.
Even though no one can deny the fact that India needs to do a lot on environmental issues but at the same time we cannot allow any NGO to spend millions not on protecting the environment but to stall the development of India on these pretexts which only amount to sedition.
The time has come when Modi government must work hard on environment but also protect the sovereignty and integrity of nation by taking strong legal action against any such organization howsoever powerful that works against the interests of the Indian nation.