Sonia Pledges to Help Christian Groups to Circumvent Regulations

Posted September 27, 2005
Nistula Hebbar
New Delhi September 27, 2005
Business Standard

Religious and non-government organisations, which receive foreign aids, are being brought under the scanner by the home ministry, raising concerns about government interference in these bodies.

Representing these views of several church-based organisations, Union Programme Implementation Minister Oscar Fernandes and 30 other MPs met National Advisory Council Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to intercede with the home ministry in this regard.

The immediate trigger for the meeting was the proposed Foreign Contribution Control and Monitoring Bill. But the posting of a list on the ministry website giving details about organisations, which are banned from receiving foreign aid and those which will require permission to receive aid despite the FCRA registration, has further upset voluntary and church bodies.

The home ministry’s list has the name of mostly religious organisations. Of them, 10 are run under different Muslim charities, with seven of them from Jammu and Kashmir. Similarly, seven others belong to various Christian groups.

According to sources, the home ministry has stipulated that its categorisation of organisations into those which are banned, and those which require permission to receive foreign fund despite FCRA registration, will be enforced fully and is in place to encourage NGOs to file the F-3 form, which is something like a tax return.

“Even if an organisation has not received any aid, the F-3 form will have to be filled, or the risk is to be listed in either of these two lists,” said a source.

“Of the 30,000 NGOs registered under the FCRA only around 15,000 file the F-3 form. While some organisations are in trouble because they have been found to have links with terror groups, others are there because they have not filed the F-3 form,” said a source.

Voluntary organisations are going to take up the matter with the home ministry. “We resent clubbing of organisations receiving terror money with those which have been lax in filing F-3 forms. We want that the classification reflect this difference,” said Pooran Pande of the Voluntary Associations Network of India.

According to Pande, Gandhi has also assured Christian groups that she will take up the matter with the home ministry.

The proposed FCMC will have tighter controls in place and the home ministry has made it clear that even organisations running on money given by various government ministries will have to pull their act together. Voluntary organisations fear that in the name of internal security the autonomy of NGOs will get compromised.