There are enough instances of government efforts, especially reform-oriented ones, running into opposition from civil society organisations. NGOs, including global ones, rallying against the nuclear power project at Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu, is just one example. It is only expected that a reform-minded government should concern itself with defeating such propaganda. It is in this backdrop that the Centre put Ford Foundation, a major donor for many NGOs and research institutions in India, on a watch-list, and narrowed the window for its donations.
Earlier this month, it had frozen bank accounts of Greenpeace India for “prejudicially affecting” the country’s economic interests.
It is vital that the government opts for a better course of action. Clamping down on the NGOs and their funders, apart from being a bad idea, has a negative fallout—the government is often accused of “curbing dissent”. This distracts the public from the larger reform agenda and helps aggregate opposition.
The government could consider running its own campaign, perhaps even pre-emptively, to spread awareness about its goals and the long-term good that would accrue. While individual and institutional donors will pursue causes that could pitch them against the government—in the US, liberal philanthropist George Soros and Ford Foundation poured $196 million into the campaign for absolute net neutrality—the government countering NGOs’ propaganda has to be about negating it, not suppressing it.