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Christian groups are concerned that a plan to curb the flow of foreign funds to organizations in India could threaten Christian bodies and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

In a move ostensibly aimed at cutting off financing of terrorist groups from outside sources, the Indian government plans to replace the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) with stringent legislation to curb foreign donations, according to recent news reports.

But Christian bodies fear that more restrictive legislation could lead to a clamp down on foreign donations to legitimate Christian and other organizations unpopular with the government.

"It is quite clear that the government is capitalizing on the current scare about terrorism," said the All India Christian Council (AICC), a lay ecumenical forum, in a recent statement.

"Several ministers and senior government leaders had made it clear that the FCRA [amendment] was being targeted at Muslims and Christians," AICC said in a written appeal to President Kocheril Raman Narayanan last month. The council asked the president not to approve the legislation on foreign contributions.

Although the federal cabinet has not yet recommended an amendment to existing legislation, AICC secretary general John Dayal said he feared a new bill could be introduced in parliament as early as the end of this month.

Ipe Joseph, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI)—a forum of 29 Orthodox and Protestant churches—said: "We are very much concerned if what is reported in the media is true."

"The Union government will soon move a new FCRA to plug loop-holes in existing legislation and enhance [the government's] abilities to monitor the flow of foreign funds to missionaries and fundamentalist organizations," the English-language daily Times of India reported in October.

The federal government, the news report continued, has "decided to repeal the existing FCRA, 1976, and replace it by a law with more stringent provisions to check proselytization by foreign Christian missionaries in India and also the transfer of money from foreign-based Muslim and Buddhist organizations to subversive elements and religious fundamentalists."

Churches with a Protestant missionary background are especially concerned about the changes the government might introduce, Joseph said, as they rely on support from abroad. If the laws become more stringent, he said, "government officials could create trouble for Christian action groups and even churches."

Stanley William, director of Weaker-sections Integral Development Agency, a charity of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of India, said: "We are anxiously waiting to see what the amendments will be. The government might try to exploit the present terror phobia to push through the amendments," William said.

Father John Noronha, executive director of Caritas India, the social action wing of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, said, "What we need is not a draconian law, but proper implementation of the FCRA. The existing law has sufficient provisions to find out the purpose of foreign donations and how these are utilized by the beneficiaries."

If in the name of fighting terrorism the laws become harsher, Noronha said, it will become difficult for genuine NGOs to receive funds for their work. "That might even force some of the genuine NGOs to break the law to keep their work going," he cautioned.

Copyright © 2001 ENI.

India Infonline has a very extensive section on the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.

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November (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45