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The recent changes in the rules
governing foreign funding of NGOs under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act
(FCRA) have been widely discussed. The last word on it will perhaps never be
written. The UPA government initiated this and we see some concrete changes
now. Sifting through the bewildering range of issues discussed, a few stand
out. First, there is a sharp polarisation on the issue between the government
and civil society, and even within civil society. Second, the polarisation is
based on lack of trust, bordering on fear, with each group highlighting faults
of the other. Behind all this are differing ideas of India we all hold. It
is ironical that what is at stake is not that important — a relatively small
amount of money that does not significantly help or harm India. The total FCRA
funds coming in was Rs. 11,546.29
crore for 2011-12, the latest year for which the government has put out
figures. Of this, the funds for explicitly religious activities were to the
tune of Rs. 270.83
crore; Rs. 227.4
crore for maintenance of priests, and Rs. 208.71
crore for religious schools, together coming to 6.12 per cent of total foreign
funding. Similarly, those that are clearly identifiable as lobbying advocacy,
awareness building, and so on, are Rs. 539 crore
for research and Rs. 241 crore
for awareness, or 6.76 per cent of total foreign funding. Even if all these
funds are used for anti-national activities, what will we do if they are
domestically funded? The major uses of foreign funds are for rural development,
education of the poor, health, and so on. Out of 22,702 NGOs registered under
FCRA, 13,193 actually received grants, making it on average Rs. 87.52
lakh per NGO that year. About 9,000 NGOs have rightly got their FCRA
permissions cancelled for not submitting accounts or responding to repeated
reminders. Meanwhile, there is a list of 109 international agencies that
are exempt from the FCRA, consisting of the World Bank group, UN agencies, and
so on. The World Bank funding in 2013-14 was $5.2 billion or about Rs.3.22 lakh
crore. This funding goes to the government and not to any NGO. Indian
bureaucrats are among the largest beneficiaries of World Bank and UN
assignments at dollar salaries that entitle them to life long pensions after
five years of deputation. There are other foreign funds coming into
India. In 2010, the RBI reported that FDI totalled $23.7 billion or about
Rs.1.40 lakh crore, about 12 times the FCRA funding. By 2014-15, this had gone
up to Rs.1.76 lakh crore. This is about 10 per cent of the Central government
budget of about Rs. 18 lakh
crore. This would have been much higher but for the global slowdown, as India
got $40 billion in 2008 before the global meltdown. We periodically see
announcements of relaxation in FDI rules for various sectors like retail,
insurance, and so on. In short, foreign funding of NGOs is dwarfed by other
foreign money coming into India. Of this, the amount used for potentially
questionable purposes is about 13 per cent. Let us look at another set of
issues. All organisations working in society need to be transparent and
accountable, including NGOs, whether domestically or foreign funded. The RTI
tries to do that for the government. But beyond the NGOs, corporates and the
government, there are political parties and religious organisations. The
Supreme Court has admitted a petition saying that India’s two major political
parties, the BJP and the Congress, receive illegal foreign funding. Like other
major democracies, India also does not permit political parties to receive
foreign funding. But no notice has been issued by the government to the
political parties. One of the parties said they have returned the money, and
the matter was laid to rest after that. Would other organisations, including
the corporate sector and the NGOs be permitted to respond similarly? The
political parties have also violated the RTI Act by refusing to comply with CIC
orders. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Government has passed an ordinance that an
FIR cannot be filed against legislators and senior officers without prior
approval to avoid frivolous allegations. But there is no protection for
ordinary citizens against harassment whether by the police, income tax or other
authorities. The police investigate allegations against themselves and give
themselves a clean chit. There is no remedy for citizens who need some
permission from the government and there is no reply for months or years. The
government has publicly used the phrase ‘tax terrorism,’ but has so far done
nothing to protect the citizen. It is well known that several religious
organisations and their affiliates receive foreign funding. Those that indulge
in anti-national and subversive activities will not be affected by the new FCRA
rules — their work is underground. So we see a trend where government
officers and elected representatives, political organisations and some
religious organisations and affiliates are protected, but others are harassed.
This is in line with some of the erstwhile Communist countries, such as Hungary
and Russia, which are also clamping down on NGOs getting foreign funding.
Interestingly there is no such clampdown in the West. Are we moving towards a
free market economy along with totalitarian controls? The major reason that is
offered for these controls is that sometimes NGOs indulge in activities that
are “detrimental to national interest, likely to affect public interest, or
likely to prejudicially affect the security, scientific, strategic or economic
interest of the state.” This was the classic language used by the British
colonials in order to justify new laws and regulations aimed at curbing civil
liberties. This is not to say that no NGO ever does anything wrong. If they
break the law, they should be brought to book. There are more than adequate laws
to ensure that this happens.
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