OPEN LETTER TO UNION HOME MINISTER – HARASSMENT OF VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS UNDER FCRA
4 July 2023
Dear Home Minister,
We are a group of former civil servants of the All India and Central Services who have worked with the Central and State Governments in the course of our careers. Our group has no affiliation with any political party, and we, as its members, believe in impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Constitution of India.
We write today to express our concern over what appears to us to be the very negative approach of the Government of India in renewal of FCRA licences of nonprofits engaged in different sectors in India. Newspaper reports indicate that the FCRA registrations of nearly 5933 NGOs lapsed as of 1 January 2022. While there are undoubtedly cases where NGOs have not applied in time for renewal, the denial of renewal to a number of internationally reputed NGOs occasions cause for concern.
In the recent past, FCRA licences of four well-known nonprofits – Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Oxfam India, Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Centre for Equity Studies (CES) – have been cancelled or suspended. These are all institutions whose activities are aimed at addressing the problems of the most marginalised sections of Indian society. Rights to food, work, wages, health and shelter and the right to lead a dignified life based on the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India feature prominently in the work of these organisations. Oxfam has been working in India since 1951 and has been involved in a number of humanitarian and development activities over the past seventy years in various parts of India. CHRI activities range from advocacy of the right to information of citizens to prison and police reforms and promoting media freedom and the right to free expression. CPR is a prominent public policy think tank, with distinguished former civil servants and corporate professionals on its Governing Board. CES, set up in 2001, aims to influence public policy and law for sustainable long term solutions towards the rights and care of underprivileged sections of society.
The cancellation/suspension of the FCRA licences of these organisations and the initiation of punitive action by various law enforcement agencies of the Government of India is an outcome of the highly flawed provisions of the FCRA. It seems as though, using the FCRA, the Government of India seeks to deter civil society organisations from seeking funding from foreign sources, although such access to foreign funds, through other legally sanctioned means, is freely available to the private sector, digital and print media and political parties. Section 3 of the FCRA virtually prohibits the free expression of opinion by anyone associated with an NGO obtaining foreign contributions. Section 5 gives sweeping powers to the Government of India to declare any organisation as “of a political nature”, thereby rendering it ineligible to receive foreign contributions. The scope of Section 7 of the FCRA has been narrowed down, by its 2020 amendment, to prohibit transfer of foreign contributions from one FCRA-registered party to another. Section 12 uses broad terms like “sovereignty and integrity of India” and “public interest” to give the government full discretion to decide whether to permit foreign contributions to any organisation/person.
All these restrictive and vaguely worded clauses in the FCRA have been used to act against organisations that take an independent view on economic, social and political issues, which may not be to the liking of the government. Thus, columns by persons like Harsh Mander and his associates, relating to their professional areas of competence, have been deemed to be violative of Section 3. The provisions of Section 7 have been broadly interpreted to exclude even collaboration between CES and other non-FCRA organisations in the joint publication of reports. Payments received by Harsh Mander and his associates for specified outputs (and not for articles written by them) have been deemed to violate Sections 3, 8 and 12(4)(vi) of the FCRA. The Central Bureau of investigation has reportedly alleged violation of Sections 8 and 12(4) of the FCRA in payments made by Oxfam India to CPR. Detailed clarifications from all four organisations to queries by the Ministry of Home Affairs have elicited no meaningful response from your Ministry.
The Government of India should clarify how nonprofit organisations can access foreign contributions if every moment is spent in complying with restrictive legislative provisions. Every expression of difference of opinion or dissent cannot be construed as violating the integrity and sovereignty of the country or as being against public interest. The actions of your Ministry and the various law enforcement agencies give rise to a strong suspicion that independent assessments of or perspectives about socio-economic indicators of the country are not welcome. It ill behoves a government professing adherence to democratic ideals to be intolerant of criticism of its policies and encourage its agencies to adopt intimidatory practices, such as searches, seizures, inquisitorial questioning and information leaks to the media aimed at damaging the reputation of these organisations in the minds of the public. These organisations are helmed by persons with an impeccable and rich record in public life.
Rather than facilitating socio-economic initiatives by civil society organisations, the hobbling of the operations of major nonprofits and entangling them in tortuous, long-drawn legal battles will lead to a drastic reduction in the involvement of such organisations in catalysing community involvement in socio-economic development. The Government of India stands to lose valuable inputs it can obtain in planning policy initiatives if it fails to develop a healthy interaction with field-level and public policy nonprofit institutions.
The relentless harassment of voluntary organisations amounts to cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. For what these organisations are doing is to supplement the government’s efforts in crucial areas of health, education, employment, human rights, conservation of nature etc. They work in areas where the government’s own reach is limited or ineffective. The government should view them as partners and not as adversaries. Most importantly, these organisations work at the lowest levels of our society, with mostly marginalised groups who have fallen through the cracks in the government’s own welfare schemes, and have no safety net to take care of them. Deliberate denial of even this modicum of assistance or advocacy to them does not do credit to a government whose rallying cry is “sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas“.
As former civil servants closely associated during our careers with development processes at different levels of government, we would urge you to adopt a cooperative rather than an adversarial relationship with these essential components of any civilized society. The FCRA need to be drastically overhauled to make it a facilitating rather than restrictive piece of legislation. We hope your government will take steps in this direction and direct agencies under your control to cease needless harassment of organisations serving the people of India, especially its most marginalised and disadvantaged sections.
SATYAMEVA JAYATE
Yours faithfully,
Constitutional Conduct Group (86 signatories, as below)
| 1. | Anita Agnihotri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Social Justice Empowerment, GoI |
| 2. | Anand Arni | RAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 3. | G. Balachandhran | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 4. | Vappala Balachandran | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 5. | Gopalan Balagopal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 6. | Chandrashekar Balakrishnan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Coal, GoI |
| 7. | Sushant Baliga | Engineering Services (Retd.) | Former Additional Director General, Central PWD, GoI |
| 8. | Rana Banerji | RAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 9. | Aurobindo Behera | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha |
| 10. | Madhu Bhaduri | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Portugal |
| 11. | Ravi Budhiraja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, GoI |
| 12. | Sundar Burra | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 13. | Maneshwar Singh Chahal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary, Home, Govt. of Punjab |
| 14. | R. Chandramohan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary, Transport and Urban Development, Govt. of NCT of Delhi |
| 15. | Rachel Chatterjee | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh |
| 16. | Kalyani Chaudhuri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 17. | Gurjit Singh Cheema | IAS (Retd.) | Former Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Govt. of Punjab |
| 18. | F.T.R. Colaso | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Karnataka & former Director General of Police, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir |
| 19. | Anna Dani | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 20. | P.R. Dasgupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI |
| 21. | Pradeep K. Deb | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI |
| 22. | M.G. Devasahayam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana |
| 23. | Sushil Dubey | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Sweden |
| 24. | A.S. Dulat | IPS (Retd.) | Former OSD on Kashmir, Prime Minister’s Office, GoI |
| 25. | K.P. Fabian | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Italy |
| 26. | Prabhu Ghate | IAS (Retd.) | Former Addl. Director General, Department of Tourism, GoI |
| 27. | Arif Ghauri | IRS (Retd.) | Former Governance Adviser, DFID, Govt. of the United Kingdom (on deputation) |
| 28. | Suresh K. Goel | IFS (Retd.) | Former Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, GoI |
| 29. | S.K. Guha | IAS (Retd.) | Former Joint Secretary, Department of Women & Child Development, GoI |
| 30. | H.S. Gujral | IFoS (Retd.) | Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Govt. of Punjab |
| 31. | Meena Gupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI |
| 32. | Ravi Vira Gupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India |
| 33. | Siraj Hussain | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Agriculture, GoI |
| 34. | Naini Jeyaseelan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI |
| 35. | Sanjay Kaul | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka |
| 36. | Ish Kumar | IPS (Retd.) | Former DGP (Vigilance & Enforcement), Govt. of Telangana and former Special Rapporteur, National Human Rights Commission |
| 37. | Sudhir Kumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Central Administrative Tribunal |
| 38. | Subodh Lal | IPoS (Resigned) | Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Communications, GoI |
| 39. | Amitabh Mathur | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 40. | Aditi Mehta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan |
| 41. | Malay Mishra | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Hungary |
| 42. | Noor Mohammad | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority, Govt. of India |
| 43. | Satya Narayan Mohanty | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission |
| 44. | Jugal Mohapatra | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Rural Development, GoI |
| 45. | Deb Mukharji | IFS (Retd.) | Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Nepal |
| 46. | Shiv Shankar Mukherjee | IFS (Retd.) | Former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom |
| 47. | Gautam Mukhopadhaya | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Myanmar |
| 48. | Nagalsamy | IA&AS (Retd.) | Former Principal Accountant General, Tamil Nadu & Kerala |
| 49. | Surendra Nath | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Finance Commission, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 50. | P. Joy Oommen | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Chhattisgarh |
| 51. | Amitabha Pande | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI |
| 52. | Mira Pande | IAS (Retd.) | Former State Election Commissioner, West Bengal |
| 53. | Maxwell Pereira | IPS (Retd.) | Former Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi |
| 54. | Alok Perti | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI |
| 55. | G.K. Pillai | IAS (Retd.) | Former Home Secretary, GoI |
| 56. | R. Poornalingam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoI |
| 57. | Rajesh Prasad | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to the Netherlands |
| 58. | R.M. Premkumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 59. | T.R. Raghunandan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, GoI |
| 60. | V.P. Raja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission |
| 61. | K. Sujatha Rao | IAS (Retd.) | Former Health Secretary, GoI |
| 62. | Prasadranjan Ray | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairperson, West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission |
| 63. | Satwant Reddy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, GoI |
| 64. | Vijaya Latha Reddy | IFS (Retd.) | Former Deputy National Security Adviser, GoI |
| 65. | Julio Ribeiro | IPS (Retd.) | Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab & former Ambassador to Romania |
| 66. | Aruna Roy | IAS (Resigned) | |
| 67. | Manabendra N. Roy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 68. | A.K. Samanta | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police (Intelligence), Govt. of West Bengal |
| 69. | Deepak Sanan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh |
| 70. | S. Satyabhama | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairperson, National Seeds Corporation, GoI |
| 71. | N.C. Saxena | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI |
| 72. | Abhijit Sengupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI |
| 73. | Aftab Seth | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Japan |
| 74. | Ashok Kumar Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia |
| 75. | Navrekha Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Indonesia |
| 76. | Pravesh Sharma | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 77. | Raju Sharma | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh |
| 78. | Rashmi Shukla Sharma | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 79. | Avay Shukla | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary (Forests & Technical Education), Govt. of Himachal Pradesh |
| 80. | Sujatha Singh | IFS (Retd.) | Former Foreign Secretary, GoI |
| 81. | Tirlochan Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, National Commission for Minorities, GoI |
| 82. | Anup Thakur | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission |
| 83. | P.S.S. Thomas | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission |
| 84. | Geetha Thoopal | IRAS (Retd.) | Former General Manager, Metro Railway, Kolkata |
| 85. | Ramani Venkatesan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 86. | Rudi Warjri | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica |
