US lawmakers, social activists fume over India’s NGO regulations

Expressing concern about the Indian government’s strict regulations on the funds received from the foreign countries to the NGOs, the US lawmakers alleged that the Home Ministry and the Income Tax Department of India are harassing the non-governmental organisations working among the poorest of the poor. While speaking to the media persons, a US congressman opined that the Indian government should not put constraints before the services provided by the NGOs. He added that the authorities should not deny the services intended to help over one lakh poor children. He further added that the NGOs only provide service to those people who badly want the service offered by them. It was learned that some organisations like ‘Compassion International’ promote the religious conversion. Without focusing the religious conversion issue, the Indian government asserted that the new regulations introduced by the government are not aimed at a particular community or NGO. Meanwhile, several Hindu fundamentalist organisations criticised that the Christian organisations used the foreign fund for religious conversion. Notably, denouncing the allegations raised by the Hindu fundamentalist organisations, several foreign organisations and social and political activists backed the claims made by the US lawmaker. They claimed that any attempt to ruthlessly regulate the foreign funds will hurt the rights of the civil society of the largest democratic country. Earlier, there were allegations that the ‘Compassion International’ had distributed funds to both FCRA and non-FCRA NGOs. As per the Indian law, distributing foreign funds to the non-FCRA NGOs is illegal.

Vignesh

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