FCRA provisions remind of emergency era: civil society
Ashok Kumar/OneWorld South Asia
Jun 10, 2016
Civil Society leaders say that FCRA has become a tool to muzzle dissent and urged the government to stop targeting NGOs in the name of FCRA because it affects people living in the margins.
New Delhi: Recent developments surrounding civil society space in India has produced a worrisome trend, leaders of India’s civil society said at a press conference convened in New Delhi today.
This, leading civil society actors said, was leading to the curtailment on the activities of civil society organizations besides an increase in punitive actions by the state that bears a footprint of selective targeting.
The press conference, addressed by prominent civil society representatives, including Mathew
Cherian, Paul Divakar and Anand Grover, was in the backdrop of suspension of the FCRA registration of the legal advocacy firm 'Lawyers Collective’.
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Expressing their concern for targeting NGOs in the garb of violating the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), activists cautioned the government against the culture of 'Watchlists' and 'Crackdowns'.
There are approximately 1.2 million NGOs in India with around 12.7 million people working in the sector.
Mathew Cherian, Chair, Voluntary Association Network of India, criticised the government for ushering in a non-enabling environment for the sector, much to the disadvantage of some of the most vulnerable and marginalised communities.
Stating that foreign funding for Indian NGOs has dropped down to half from Rs 13,600 crore to Rs 7,600 crore in the year 2014-15, he said "Money meant for development cause is going to other countries because if restrictions in India.”
Expressing his concern over the government being out to tighten the screws on the civil society sector, Matthew advocated that the sector should be free from regulations even as he stated that about 10,550 NGOs lost license during last year. “We don't have a level playing field with the corporate sector in terms of foreign funding. Some NGOs may not be credible but as a sector we enjoy credibility. Even businesses can use money for anti-national activities,” he said.
Civil society has lost to the corporate sector in terms of foreign funding and is bereft of a level playing field, alleged representatives from across the spectrum in New Delhi.
Tracing the history of FCRA, Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative said, said that the law was introduced during emergency and the present government is using FCRA to curb dissent. “FCRA was first passed in 1976 when the government placed the country under emergency, suspending all fundamental rights,” he said.
Terming the sector as a vigilant guardian for the marginalised and most vulnerable people, he said, “since the amendments in 2010, the was being misused to muzzle down voices of dissent and protest.”
Ironically, FCRA was first targeted by the government of Mrs Indira Gandhi to muzzle the Gandhi Peace Foundation.
“What activity is permissible by the government?” he asked, stating that “this is a major cause of concern as executive decisions are being taken without proper systems in place.”
Nayak stressed that executive authority cannot decide violation of laws and FCRA is in violation of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. “FCRA is just to regulate the recipients. Why are donors being regulated? Every action of executive authority should be subject to judicial review,” he said.
Nayak lamented that the rules are ambiguous as they do not specify what kind of activities could be taken by NGOs under FCRA. Ridiculing the provision of digitisation of records under FCRA, he said it was difficult for NGOs working in the remote areas of country.
Anand Grover, Senior Advocate and co-founder of Lawyers Collective (LC) came down heavily on the government for what he described as baseless charges against him and the LC. "I gave up foreign citizenship to work in this country. There is no activity that we have done against national interest. We are not dictated by funders or government. We work on issues of women rights, marginalised communities, sex workers and drug abuse," he said.
Grover alleged that there was a pattern to the witch hunting of NGOs working on human rights issues in the name of FCRA violations.
Taking a dig at the charges against LC, Grover cited many factual inaccuracies. “Indira Jaisingh (co founder of LC) is not a government servant. She is a senior counsel. I did not get any money. LC got the foreign funding. I was just reimbursed for certain expenses like the telephone bills,” he said.
Mona Mishra, Sexual Health Activist, urged the government for reinventing its relationship with society. She criticised the government for 'penalising' organisations like the LC working for marginalised sections.
Mishra alleged that there is no money for organsiations working for rights and government wants to silence them. Advocacy gets hit by such measures, she said. “When you hurt organization working for people, how many people you hurt?”
Paul Divakar, National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, said that it is ironical that Home Ministry instead of the Social Welfare Ministry or the Ministry for Rural Development is dealing with the sector dedicated for social causes and development.
Divakar added that the state has failed to support the democratisation happening at the community level. (Extract : propoor)
