Greenpeace contended that the order cancelling its licence was false and violated law.
Hitting back, Greenpeace India on Thursday said it will move court against Tamil Nadu government's notice threatening cancellation of its registration and alleged that the "perversely framed and maliciously designed" charges were levelled at the behest of Union home ministry.
Greenpeace India on Tuesday said it was staring at an "imminent" shutdown within a month in the absence of funds.
Greenpeace's registration to operate in India has been cancelled, the environmental group said on Friday, marking yet another action which, it alleged, came under the directions of the Union home ministry as part of the crackdown on NGOs.
Greenpeace India is at the receiving end again. This time, it is in the cross hairs of the Tamil Nadu government.
NGO rebuts Enforcement Directorate's charges.
The United States on Friday expressed concern over India's crackdown on Ford Foundation and Greenpeace, and said it is seeking "clarification" on the action.
In the last 11 years, India and the world witnessed what he stood for, what he promised and did not deliver, and what he actually stood for and practised without fearing how history would judge him. Modi's tenure has been punctuated with headline-grabbing decisions, symbolic gestures, and stage-managed moments that continue to define his leadership and India's politics, points out Ramesh Menon.
'We are facing a crackdown for more than a year. Our permission to collect funds was cancelled. Our bank accounts were frozen.' 'We believe that our work in India is very important. We want to be the environment watchdog. We do not want to waste time fighting legal battles.'
Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday virtually backed the non-governmental organisation Greenpeace in the backdrop of an Intelligence Bureau report warning that the NGO is a threat to the country's economic growth.
'Although strong arm tactics do cause inconvenience, they have not been able to stop us from carrying out our campaigns.' 'Allegations about being 'anti-development' mean very little when people in the country are still going hungry.' Greenpeace India chief Ravi Chellam on the challenges ahead.
Critics say the crackdown is to muzzle dissent and Rijiju's actions could lead to less foreign aid for projects that fight child marriage, provide clean water in slums and feed pregnant women.
The highest income group consisting of one per cent of population emits four-and-half times as much carbon dioxide as compared to the lowest income group with 38 per cent of the population in India, according to a report.
The list has been handed over to Enforcement Directorate.
The industry began to upgrade its practices even before the NGO alleged Indian tea contained harmful pesticides.
When it came to dealing with the media and academia, it has been a roller coaster ride for the National Democratic Alliance, observes Nitin Sethi.
Charging NGOs like Greenpeace with violating Indian laws, the RSS on Sunday called US as "the global police of democracy" and questioned its defence of the two organisations.
'Through this one step, and more steps that follow, log judte jayenge (more people will come together); I'm sure of that.'
The United States on Wednesday expressed concern over punitive action taken by the National Democratic Alliance government against scores of non government organisation, asserting that a vibrant civil society was important for democratic traditions and that those who act peacefully to seek change are not anti-government.
"As an organisation committed to the rule of law, our operations in India have always conformed with our national regulations. The principles of transparency and accountability are at the heart of our work.".
'There is nothing traitorous about highlighting the poor record of your own government. If the Indian government does something wrong, we all have the right to point this out at any forum, international or national.'
Modi denies the charges and was exonerated in an Indian Supreme Court inquiry in 2012.
Muzzling NGOs is unbecoming of a democracy. Self-confident democracies encourage, indeed applaud, the involvement of citizens' associations, including NGOs, in social and political decision-making and development planning. Instead, our paranoid government bullies and terrorises them, says Praful Bidwai.
'Yes, we engage when those issues come up and try to strike that balance between what is an internal domestic matter for the government to resolve, and what's an issue that actually should be raised on the bilateral level.'
'No private citizen can be prevented from holding or propagating in India or abroad, a view contrary to that of the government of the day. The government, it seems is misreading the mandate in the Lok Sabha as being a mandate to crush dissent. In times when ruling parties have brute majorities in Parliament, the true test of safeguarding democracy is its ability to allow dissenting voices to be heard,' says Indira Jaising, the former additional solicitor general.
Avid cyclists, newspaper vendors, milkmen and courier boys have come together to protest against West Bengal government's ban on cycles from city roads, reports Debaleena Sengupta.
'If you talk about any kind of equality, you are under attack.'
The former Miss World has shaped the lives of many.
'We are moving away from the path of democracy and towards Hindu religious dictatorship,' scientist P M Bhargava, who announced his decision to return the Padma Bhushan, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com
'You can't go on creating division and rhetoric of hate.' 'It comes to roost. We are seeing the first glimpses of that in the state elections.'
We're behaving like frogs in warm water. We swim around untroubled, cooled by our faith in Indian liberal democracy. We are blind to the bubbles popping around us, the bubbles warning of fundamental changes, says Mihir S Sharma.
Not only is Modi's India not the shining land of dynamism and prosperity that he promised -- though it may be that, for some people, in a few years from now -- but socially it has the positively regressive tendencies that were entirely predictable.
For the past, blame the Congress. For the present, blame the Congress. For everything, blame the Congress. But for your future, vote BJP.
'The government is using the Intelligence Bureau to go after NGOs.' 'It is not only the NDA, the UPA also didn't like NGOs.' 'NGOs predominantly work with the poor. So, when you cancel an NGO, the affected are the poor, the Dalits, the tribals, the street children and the marginalised.'
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