By MM Special Correspondent
New Delhi : It might be a coincidence or most likely a case of political vendetta for the advocate Indira Jiasing. Within days of being on the panel for the launch of Rana Ayyub’s book (Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a cover up) the noted lawyer has come in the line of fire.
Her NGO ‘Lawyers Collective’ has been barred from receiving foreign funds for six months and its license has been suspended by the Home Ministry, allegedly for violating the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
The NGO is also been served a show cause notice as to why its FCRA registration should not be cancelled.
That this should happen soon after supporting a book having the potential to hurt the present regime fatally is a co-incidence that cannot be overlooked.
Notably Indira Jaising and her husband Anand Grover are representing various people like IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt against many of those who are the part of the regime including Amit Shah.
Talking to NDTV Indira Jaising has called the Home Ministry’s action an act of “vindictiveness” and “nothing but an attempt to intimidate”.
“Those who question the government’s policies are targeted. It is a pattern and this is nothing but gross misuse of FCRA which is being used to suppress dissent.” she said.
The Home Ministry has alleged violation of FCRA’s norm on Jaising’s part by receiving foreign funds while she was she was a government servant.
Indira Jaising has refuted Home Ministriey’s claim by saying “I wasn’t ever a government servant; an additional solicitor general is not a government servant. Secondly, none of our funders have complained that the funds that they gave us were not used for the purpose for which they were meant,” Ms Jaisingh said.
It should be remembered that Sabrang Trust of Teesta Setalvad has also been clamped down in similar fashion by the Home Ministry in the past. The right activist is tirelessly fighting to procure justice for victims of 2002 Gujarat pogrom
In 2015 FCRA licence of Sabrang Trust was cancelled for a period of 180 days.The eerie similarity between the two cannot be ignored.