New Delhi, Sep 29: The ministries of Home Affairs and Law and Justice on Tuesday gave a clause-by-clause briefing to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, which has invited criticism from opposition parties and Christian groups over its contentious provisions.
A 31-member committee, headed by BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal, was constituted to examine the provisions of the legislation in details before coming out with a report.
Sources said the officials of the two ministries gave detailed presentations, explaining the reasons behind bringing the amendments to the 2010 law and its future actions.
All organisations and NGOs receiving foreign funding have to mandatorily register under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) and their activities are closely monitored by the Ministry of Home Affairs acting as nodal authority.
During the day, domain experts like Chairman of the State Bank of India Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, top law officers of the government and senior lawyers are expected convey their views to the JPC, the sources said.
The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on March 25 this year and referred to the JPC on August 12 following consistent demand of the opposition parties, which also alleged that certain provisions of the legislations were highly objectionable.
Opposition parties, which have raised strong objections to the FCRA Bill, alleged that it targets minorities as certain provisions will choke legitimate funding for Christian NGOs and minority-run social welfare and educational institutions.
The government has rejected the charges and challenged the opposition parties to identify even one provision that discriminates against minorities.
The government has also maintained that the proposed legislation is not religion-specific and is aimed at regulating foreign contributions.
While introducing the bill in Lok Sabha, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai had said the legislation aims to enhance transparency and ensure proper utilisation of funds received from abroad.
Countering the opposition’s charges that the bill is “dangerous”, Rai had asserted that it is “indeed dangerous” for those who engage in “forced religious conversion” using foreign contributions, as well as to individuals who “abuse foreign funding” for personal gain.
Congress leader KC Venugopal had alleged that the bill targets minorities and NGOs.
Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma, leading a delegation of Christian organisations, had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and expressed objections to the bill.
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad K Sangma too have raised concerns over provisions of the legislation.
DMK MP P Wilson too led a delegation of Church leaders to the Union Home Minister, seeking withdrawal of the amendment bill. DMK chief MK Stalin also urged the Centre to withdraw the FCRA bill.
NCP (SP) working president Supriya Sule had opposed the FCRA bill in its present form, saying one cannot always view foreign funding with suspicion.
Some US lawmakers of both Democratic and Republican parties, including Senator James Risch, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have voiced concerns over the planned changes to the FCRA, saying they could adversely impact Christian organisations and other civil society groups.
India, however, rejected the criticism, describing the legislative matter as an internal affair.
On September 18, in its first meeting of the JPC, a team of MHA representatives, led by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, conveyed that active NGOs registered under FCRA has halved in the last decade even as the funds received from abroad has gone up.
They said there are 14,466 FCRA registered active NGOs across 15 states with Tamil Nadu leading the pack, with 2,102 such associations, followed by Maharashtra (1,578), Karnataka (1,355), Delhi (1,218), Andhra Pradesh (1,022) and Kerala (1,013).
There were 29022 FCRA registered active NGOs in 2015.
The funds received by the FCRA registered NGOs from abroad went up to Rs 22,974 crore in 2024-25 from Rs 17,832 crore in 2015-16. During the same period, the number of active NGOs dipped from 29,022 to 14,466. (PTI)
