THE FOREIGN FUNDS SQUEEZE

On January 1, when the Union home ministry revoked the FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) registrations—mandatory for organisations to receive and use foreign funding—of 5,968 firms, many were outraged.

- Kaushik Deka

Critics said the move was aimed at crippling NGOs (non-government organisations) that have either been critical of the BJP-led central government or are run by minorities. Some of the organisations that lost their registrations include the Missionaries of Charity, set up by Nobel laureate Mother Teresa, the Medical Council of India, the India Islamic Centre, the Oxfam India Trust and Common Cause, which have filed several PILs against central legislation in recent times.

However, independent observers, including many who lost their FCRA registrations, say this is a consequence of amendments to the FCRA in 2020, which made the process of getting an FCRA registration cumbersome, opaque and dependent on the government’s discretion, rather than malafide intent. “The new rules are making it very difficult for NGOs to operate,” says Noel Harper of the Share and Care Foundation in Andhra Pradesh, which has challenged the constitutional validity of the FCRA 2020 in the Supreme Court. “The new laws are punishing even those who are doing good work.” Of the 5,968 organisations removed from the FCRA list, 5,789 did not apply for renewal by the deadline—December 31. (FCRA registrations are valid for five years and must be renewed after that.) In fact, between September 29, 2020, and December 31, 2021, 18,778 organisations were eligible for licence renewal—of these, only 12,989 submitted requests for renewals. Some of the institutes that did not apply include two Indian Institutes of Technology (Delhi and Kanpur), the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.