New Delhi: After an American legislator said the Modi government’s proposed amendments to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) could affect bilateral ties, India on Friday (August 7) said the matter comprises its ‘internal affairs’ and that the US also ‘regulates the flow of foreign funds’.
“Legislative matters concerning India are our internal affairs on which decisions are taken by parliament,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. “I would also like to point out,” he added, “that there are several nations, including the United States, which regulate the flow of foreign funds”.
Three days earlier Riley M. Moore, the Republican Congressman for the second district of West Virginia, had termed the FCRA (Amendment) Bill a “clear attack against Christians” whose pursuit could become a “major concern in our bilateral relationship with India”.
Christianity has had a lengthy history in India but now the Bill will “permit government takeovers of churches and religious charities”, Moore wrote on X.
Moore’s remarks come as the Modi government is expected to give a second shot at passing the controversial FCRA (Amendment) Bill through parliament during the ongoing monsoon session.
Christian bodies in particular have been a vocal opponent of the Bill, which the government piloted during the budget session in March but deferred in the face of pushback from the opposition but also amid the assembly elections in Kerala, where Christians make up a little less than a fifth of the population.
Among the changes the Bill seeks to insert into the law is the creation of a ‘designated authority’ that will take over the foreign-funded assets of an organisation whose FCRA certificate has been cancelled, surrendered or simply not renewed. The assets in question would include even those partially funded by foreign money.
If the designated authority goes on to permanently vest an organisation’s assets, it must use them for public purposes and can go on to transfer them to the government or sell them. If an asset is a place of worship, the authority must “ensure that the religious character of such place of worship is maintained”.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
