Greenpeace India, which has been under scrutiny by the Union Home ministry for “preventing economic growth in India” and on social media for the way it handled sexual harassment allegations, said it was changing its India leadership.
“Greenpeace India’s Executive Director Samit Aich and Programmes Director Divya Raghunandan have bid adieu, and we graciously welcome the new interim executive directors- Vinuta Gopal and Sanjiv Gopal (no relation) as our new leadership,” the NGO said in a letter.
“With their over a decade long stint at Greenpeace India, Samit and Divya proved to be the organisation’s backbone, and more importantly an inspiration to all of us. We are extremely thankful for their outstanding work and contribution towards Greenpeace’s vision and mission during their tenure of service and we wish them success in their future endeavours,” the organization said.
About a month ago, an ex-employee of Greenpeace alleged that she had to leave her job in 2013 after being sexually harassed and raped by her colleagues.
Narrating her ordeal, she said that it started a year after she had joined the NGO at their Bengaluru office.
“I got a call from a senior colleague at 11pm, asking me to vacate my room and insisting that I sleep in his suite. In another incident, he approached me physically despite my discomfort, insisted on force-feeding me birthday cake,” IANS news agency had reported.