Amnesty International said on Wednesday that Indian authorities are using recommendations from a global terror financing watchdog to target civil society groups and activists.
In a report published on Wednesday, the NGO writes that the recommendations of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) are being misused by the Narendra Modi government to silence critics.
“Under the guise of fighting terrorism, the Indian government has used the FATF recommendations to strengthen its arsenal of financial and anti-terrorism laws,” said Aakar Patel, President of Amnesty International India.
These laws, he continues, are “regularly abused to target and silence people who express criticism.”
The 39-country FATF, of which India has been a member since 2010, is tasked with combating money laundering and terrorist financing at the global level.
Critics of Mr. Modi say the Indian government is trying to put pressure on human rights groups by scrutinizing their finances and restricting the way they receive funding from abroad.
According to Amnesty International’s report, more than 20,600 NGOs have had their licenses revoked in the last decade, including nearly 6,000 since the beginning of 2022.
The organization also ended its activities in India in 2020 after the government froze its bank accounts. At the time, she felt she was the victim of an “incessant witch hunt by the Indian government against human rights groups on baseless grounds.”
The Indian government, for its part, accused the organization of “illegal practices,” in particular the transfer of “large sums of money” from its branch in the United Kingdom to India.
Like Amnesty International, other NGOs see themselves as victims of harassment by Modi’s Hindu nationalist government because they have criticized the way Indian minorities are treated and denounced rights abuses committed in conflict zones.
Journalists who criticize the government have also complained of increasing harassment, particularly on social media, where Mr. Modi’s ruling party has a strong presence.