Abhishek Pratap of Greenpeace on Wednesday accused the Intelligence Bureau of trying to muzzle just voices and silencing society.
"I will like to clarify that there is a talk about Greenpeace hindering India's economic development, which has been reported by some media articles based on an IB report. First of all, Greenpeace is an independent organisation with a campaign for development which is sustainable, and growth that is inclusive. We have a right to express our legitimate voice in relation to the current developments in this country," Pratap said.
"We believe that this report is designed to muzzle and silence civil society who raise voices against injustice to the people and the environment by asking uncomfortable questions about current model of growth," Pratap added.
"Opposing nukes and coal doesn't mean that we are against the country's economic growth. In fact, we are very much concerned about country's sustainable growth, and for that, we are raising these issues which is somewhere compromising the sustainability of ecological sustainability," he said further.
When asked about Greenpeace's reported collusion with S.P Uday Kumar, who has been spearheadinged a people's movement against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu, Karuna Raina, a senior campaigner, said: "There is not an iota of truth in that. There is a large coalition of anti-nuclear movement. And, I am sure like this media meet at the press club, similarly anti-nuclear activists all across India and world meet each other, that is the association which we have. There has never been any kind of monetary involvement for us giving them money for them to write reports of any kind what so ever,So I think thats completely baseless."
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On Greenpeace funding, Pratap said: "On that part, I will answer. In India, civil societies are not mandated to release their annunal reports. Greenpeace, for the last five years, are coming out with
an annual report, are coming out, and all the donations that we receive, domestic or overseas, are in the public domain."
The reactions from the Greenpeace Foundation came hours after it had refuted allegations of negatively impacting the economic growth of the country, a charge leveled by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in its report submitted to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
The IB, in its report dated June 3, has described the Greenpeace Organization as 'a threat to national economic security' and has claimed that there could be negative implications of the NGOs' role on GDP growth ranging from 2-3 per cent per annum".
The IB has also accused the NGO of funding Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Pankaj Singh in the Lok Sabha Elections, , and staging protest against nuclear and coal plants. It further accuses the NGO of being funded by some foreign activists visiting India.
