An irrational fear of civil society

Through a series of innovative measures, the government has succeeded in kneecapping NGOs, if not finishing them off entirely

In February 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a rally in Bhubaneshwar that he was “a victim of a conspiracy by NGOs”. This conspiracy was aimed at “finishing” him and removing his government. As evidence for this, he said: “You would have seen that morning to night, I am being attacked. Some people keep at it.”

Civil society was “also upset because I told a few non-government organisations  (NGOs) to give us an account of the foreign funds that they spend here. They ganged up and said ‘beat Modi, beat Modi, he’s asking us for an account of our expenditure’,”