Real anger against the Modi ‘Sarkar’ is the squeezing of foreign funding: Congress, an example

Over the years, the government has initiated action on various fronts to ensure that the foreign funding for the NGOs are not spent on conversion to Christianity and anti-national activities

New Delhi, Dec 14: The debate over foreign funding was back in the foray after Union Home Minister, Amit Shah revealed that the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation's licence was revoked as it had received foreign funding.

HM Shah said that the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation had received Rs 1.35 crore funding from the Chinese Embassy. He further revealed that the foundation had also received funding of Rs 50 lakh from the Zakir Naik run Islamic Research Foundation (IRF). To be sure Naik is an absconding accused and a radical Islamic preacher.

The real anger: The Narendra Modi led government since taking over in 2014 has focused heavily on foreign funding. It has been found on numerous occasions that are scores of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) which have received foreign funding and have used it for purposes that are anti-national in nature.

Officials OneIndia spoke with say that the real anger among many against the current dispensation is that the foreign funding has been squeezed. The objective of this government is very clear and that is foreign funding has to be regulated and what comes in cannot be used for purposes detrimental to India.

Stringent action: In 2018, the government informed that the number of NGOs violating the FCRA norms had come down drastically. That year the government said the nearly 13,000 licences of NGOs were cancelled for violating the norms. The government told the Rajya Sabha that nearly 18,864 associations and institutions had been cancelled since 2011. A one time opportunity was given to the associations to upload the pending annual returns with the details of their income and expenditure.

The menace: The government also undertook a major crackdown in March this year on the officials at the Foreign Division in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Central Bureau of Investigation undertook searches to nab representatives of NGOs. Middlemen and public servants of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) division of the MHA for committing violations of FCRA provisions and facilitating illegal clearances in lieu of bribes.

It was found during the raid that transactions to the tune of Rs 2 crore through hawala transactions had been made and some officials were even caught red-handed while accepting bribes.

NGOs in particular have been under the scanner for the past several years. Break-India,anti-India campaigns and conversion rackets were very much part of the agenda of these NGOs and hence their foreign funding for disruptive purposes came under the scanner. There are 16,890 NGOs registered with the MHA and the registrations of over 20,600 have been cancelled for various violations in the past decade. Further the MHA had in March informed Parliament that it had rejected the renewal licences of 466 NGOs since 2020.

In 2020 too the government had cracked down on several NGOs as it was found that they were receiving foreign donations for religious purposes. Such NGOs were found to be in operation largely in Jharkhand where the Christian missionaries were found to be converting locals to Christianity.

The missionaries: It was found that many NGOs were getting funds to break India. The official cited above said that such NGOs run by Christian missionaries exploit the fault lines along religion, caste, community, language, ethnicity and race. They then set up conversion factories, target tribals with a view of dividing society.

Such missionaries were also found to be using foreign funds to get articles blaming Hindus for all the evils in society. Funding has been largely diverted by dedicated Churches abroad and it was also found that collecting big donations in convent schools was also part of the exercise.

The new rules: In 2020, the Union Government tightened the rules for organisations that seek foreign funds and said that such entities cannot be political in nature.

The rules mandate that all entities seeking registration under the FCRA should have been in existence for three years. Further it also said that these entities should have spent a minimum of Rs 15 lakh on core activities for the benefit of societies. More importantly these entities cannot be of political nature the new rules also stated.

Those organisations which habitually indulge in political action such as road blocks, bandhs or hartals are barred from receiving foreign contributions the new rules of 2020 also said.