Thousands Of NGOs Disregarding Law, Minister Says All NGOs Must Fall In Line

Following the cancellation of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of Sabrang Trust, an NGO run by Teesta Setalvad- a controversy over the sources of foreign funding and their actual motives kicked off in the country. Furthering the discussion on the issue, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju stated on Saturday that all voluntary organisations ‘must fall on line’ and ‘no genuine NGO doing legitimate work should be worried as we are making the whole FCRA registration process online and transparent.’

If an NGO is not doing any wrong, why should it be fearful,” he said addressing a seminar on ‘International terrorism - how we are being affected’.

Despite the establishment’s effort to make FCRA process online and transparent, the left-communist-ngo-brigade has targeted the government, accusing it of formulating anti-NGO policies and using scare tactics by launching probes to investigate possible violations of FCRA.

As explained by Sanjeev Nayyar in this blog post, “FCRA regulates the receipt of funds by NGOs and is managed by the MHA. Any organization that wants to receive contributions from abroad has to apply and get approval from the Home Ministry. The associations could be religious, social, cultural or educational organizations.”

Therefore, as Rijiju explained, the probe launched to investigate possible violations of the FCRA registration should not affect NGOs that work within the framework of the FCRA license and abide by the law of the land.

To our surprise, the NGOs are worried. The question remains, however, as to ultimate significance of these foreign funded NGOs.

In this article for Swarajya, Madhu Purnima Kishwar describes foreign funded NGOs as ‘Anti-Globalization Brigade,’ working to further the sinister agenda of their diktats.

“They actively discouraged their followers from finding concrete solutions to concrete problems and made rabble-rousing a substitute for all political activity. There are basic flaws in the way the Anti-Globalization Brigade diagnose India’s problems. In their worldview, globalization = privatization = selling off India’s assets to evil marauders,” writes Madhu.