Imagine a global civil society event in which the first several rows of the audience are occupied by saffron-clad members of a single religion, and whose coordination is in the hands of institutions from the same religion. Well, you do not have to imagine too hard, because this is the reality of C-20, the official civil society process of G-20, since India has taken over the latter’s presidentship. The C-20 process has been co-opted by the party in power in a not-so-subtle attempt at furthering its own politico-religious vision, giving it a very thin veneer of civil society respectability. This dangerous deception is combined with another one where G-20’s focus on neoliberal economics is attempted to be covered by a green fig leaf called the ‘green economy’, and pliable NGOs are being called in to legitimise it.
I learnt this the hard way when I recently agreed to be on a panel to discuss the role of civil society in biodiversity conservation, being organised by a prominent university, as part of the C-20 process. I told the organisers upfront that I will be critical of G-20 and C-20 in my remarks as I think they are being used as platforms to push for policies and actions that are anti-biodiversity and against the interests of communities most dependent on nature. I was told that they had no problems with me raising issues about economic policies, etc., as long as I did not make ‘political’ statements about G-20 and C-20, and remained objective. I politely refused to accept such censorship and we agreed that I should drop out of the panel.
As a forum providing space for civil society to discuss issues relevant to the economic, social, cultural issues that the G-20 forum takes up, C-20 has been around since 2008. It has a statement of principles, finalised in 2019, which includes its mandate to ‘hold governments accountable’ and be a counter-balance to undue business influence.
