The Foreign Hand

Context: The Recent amendments to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), drafted without consultation with stakeholders further clip the wings of India’s battered civil society. 

Arguments for the new amendments:

• Reducing the threat of conversions: 

• In Parliament, the BJP alleged that foreign money was being used for religious conversions. 
• In 2017, the government barred American Christian charity, Compassion International, accusing it of supporting conversions. 
• Prevents Economic Loss: an o?cial report quanti?ed the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) losses allegedly caused by environmental NGOs, insinuating a foreign conspiracy against India. 

Arguments against the new amendments:

• Puts onerous conditions on civil society organizations, and educational and research institutions that have partnerships, including of a financial nature, with foreign entities. 

• Incompatibility with international obligations:

• The International Commission of Jurists has said the new law was incompatible with international obligations and India’s own constitutional provisions on rights. 

• Seamless sharing of ideas and resources across national boundaries is essential to the functioning of a global community, and shouldn’t be discouraged unless it encourages illegal activities.

• Against the commitment of Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam: as a framework for India’s global engagement.

• Selective Aversion: The restrictions have been selectively put on specific categories of global ideas and ideals like environmentalism, human rights and civil liberties.

• While on the other hand, the political parties recently abdicated themselves of legal responsibilities through an amendment in 2017 to escape illegalities of past foreign funding.

• Disadvantageous for vulnerable sections: at a time when the Non-Governmental Organizations act as a necessary supplement in the management of the pandemic.

• The world is poorer when new barriers are raised.