Explained: FCRA, Foreign Donations, and India's Complicated Relationship with NGOs |
Posted: January 7, 2022 |
On New Year's Eve, the registration of nearly 6,000 NGOs lapsed under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). This was due to failure to apply for renewal before the due date or the Home Ministry rejecting their applications altogether. Foreign funding of NGOs is a controversial topic across countries. India is no different. The political class’s animosity against NGOs has been one of the few matters that have evoked universal support across party lines. The FCRA was passed by a Congress Government in 1976 and its current iteration was enacted in 2010 under the UPA-2 administration. Since then, the legislation has been used as a tool by successive Governments to muzzle NGOs. The Manmohan Singh administration, for instance, used it to crack down on organisations protesting against the Kudankulam nuclear power project and even cancelled the licences of three NGOs over the matter. However, since 2014, New Delhi’s line against NGOs has grown exponentially more hostile. At times, this has bordered on paranoia - Narendra Modi, for example, went on a diatribe in 2016 alleging that there was a conspiracy to “embarrass Modi” and “beat Modi” by NGOs, which he characterised as “diseases”. What is the FCRA? Why is it so controversial? Head to this for a deep-dive: https://transfin.in/explained-fcra-foreign-donations-and-indias-complicated-relationship-with-ngos
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