Missing Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) account details, generation of “black money", facilitating “coerced conversion" and funding “anti-government" protests — these are the reasons behind cancellation of licences of some of the big international NGOs, think tanks and nationally known organisations, News18 has learnt from reliable sources in the government.
As per the list available with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), 1,832 FCRA licences were cancelled since 2019. Of these, only 24 were cancelled since 2021, while a majority of the total cancellations — at least 1,808 — happened in 2019. The operational headquarters of the cancelled NGOs in 2019 were registered in nine states — Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Post 2021, the big names which saw their FCRA licences cancelled included the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), World Vision India and Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
According to senior officials in the ministry who deal with the FCRA violation process and investigation, the government has all papers and proofs about the activities and discrepancies in the FCRA accounts of the cancelled organisations and there was no “partisan or political action" against any organisation.
There has been an outrage over cancelation of FCRA license of the CPR, however, a detailed analysis into the cancellations over the past five years since 2019 reveal a different story.
A senior official in the MHA told News18, “The FCRA rules were amended several times, explaining the documents that are to be furnished to the government. It is a long process. The organisations must have their FCRA accounts clean and submit the audited report complying with the rules. The accounts have to show the source of the funding, details and how the funds received from the foreign or domestic donors have been used."
“If there is a fund diversion or any instance of funding an activity which may potentially aid tax-evasion or facilitate religious conversion or fund an anti-government protest, then those organisations would surely come under the radar," the senior officer added.
HOW NGOs FAIL IN COMPLIANCE
The government says that the cancelled NGOs failed in “compliance". However, the reasons are more than one.
Between 2022 and 2024, FCRA licences of 21 organisations, primarily missionary centric organisations, were cancelled. Many of these licences were cancelled as the investigation into the accounts revealed fund diversion.
Donations, primarily foreign funds, were used in facilitating ‘religious conversion’, which is also called as ‘coerced conversion’. “It is illegal in India. The funds come to the NGOs for certain work as mentioned by the organisations. Those cannot be diverted or used to fund some ulterior or anti-India activities," added another senior officer,
Notices are regularly sent to all organisations. “Mostly, pro-government think tanks or NGOs are found be compliant with the legal framework of the FCRA. There is nothing partisan," he added.
“The crackdown on NGOs, so-called trusts and foundations began during former PM Manmohan Singh’s time. Thousands of licences were cancelled. The trigger was the organised protest against the nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu. It came as a political embarrassment for him as he was pushing for the US-India civil nuclear agreement as a great achievement. They (UPA government) did extensive background work and probe, and they found that foreign money was involved. Multiple organisations were involved and most of them were backed by the church. The process was further refined when the NDA came to power. There were three reasons for this," said Kanchan Gupta, senior adviser to the ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
“First is the source of the funding. Under the FCRA, an organisation has to declare the amount and the source of the money. It has to also mention how or for what activity they are spending the money. And that should tally with the reason the organisation declares on paper. The accounts have to reflect the spendings or expenditures accordingly. But some NGOs, after declaring the amount, stopped submitting the accounts," Gupta, who is well informed about the procedures.
He further explained that many individuals or businesses use NGOs to park their money, so they can get the tax benefit. “Later, the NGOs quietly return the money to the professionals, with businessmen keeping a specific amount as their cut. This is a rampant practise. This is a way to generate black money."
Thirdly, the NGOs and foundations were used to as fronts to fund both professional agitators and organisations, which can be activated to protest against the government of India. This happened during the Narmada Bachao movement, he said.
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