NGOs and civil society have a key place in democracy. Due to their involvement in grass roots activities, they are in a unique position to raise uncomfortable questions, hold government to account and perhaps even enforce corporate responsibility. They are the people who campaign for environment protection and human rights, for the rights of marginalised sections or for workers’ and farmers’ causes.
Any wise and receptive government needs to engage with these groups for the simple reason that they provide the kind of vital inputs for course correction which no government machinery or political network can do. As such, they should not be seen as opponents or disruptors. Indeed, in the early days of the pandemic, it was some of these groups that played a stellar role in reaching out and supporting millions of poor Indians by providing food, clothing, shelter, transportation and other basic necessities.
Besides, democracy is not simply about the quest for power, electoral victories and management of the parliamentary system. It is also about an exchange of ideas, a give and take that brings out the best result.
Yet, governments, from the days of Indira Gandhi, have cast NGOs and civil society groups in an adversarial role. Borrowing a leaf from the past, the Modi government too has gone about strengthening the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), an Emergency-era law which, in its 1976 avatar, was used to ‘regulate’ foreign funding of political parties, electoral candidates, judges, newspaper publishers, even cartoonists. This was the time when most civil liberties had been suspended.
Not just that. India has just joined Russia in an ignoble league of nations from which the global human rights organisation, Amnesty International, ceased operations. This happened after the Union home ministry accused the outfit of financial impropriety. Amnesty was forced to shut shop, because the Enforcement Directorate froze its accounts.
Like the ‘foreign hand’ of an earlier era, the Union home ministry, headed by Amit Shah, ostensibly a strong man, who styles himself after Sardar Patel, has raised the spectre of ‘western funders’ interests’ to wield the blunt instrument called the FCRA to beat the NGOs into submission. FCRA funds account for about a quarter of the estimated Rs70,000 crore private funding to the non-profit sector.
One can understand if the Congress-led UPA, under the otherwise mild-mannered Manmohan Singh, acquiescing in the banning of NGOs, which were leading the protest against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. The Congress has never fully disowned the Emergency or its distortions.
The then Prime Minister’s argument for the ban was that foreign-funded NGOs are ‘not fully appreciative of the country’s development challenges’. But the 2010 amendment in FCRA was meant to expand its scope to include “any organisation of political nature”.
This definition embraced an array of groups, including trade unions, women’s and civil rights outfits, farmers’ groups, even youth forums. For a dispensation led by a political formation (like the BJP), which opposed the Emergency and even suffered under it, to take recourse to a law, which took shape during the period, is political opportunism.
One reason perhaps successive governments are falling for bureaucratic advice about a tried-and-tested formula to gag troublesome NGOs and civil society groups is to prevent bad publicity abroad. Or is that all strong leaders, surrounded by an army of sycophants, see a ghost where there is none?
It is also possible that the amendments are aimed at the Congress party. The home ministry had been probing three trusts linked to the Gandhi family, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, and the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust, for alleged violations, of among other laws, FCRA 2010. Though the trusts had denied any wrongdoing, the strengthened law could come in handy to further target these trusts.
Politics apart, the hounding of civil society has taken on a sharper edge after the NDA assumed office. Armed with changes — an amendment in 2016 made it incumbent on NGOs to renew FCRA licence every five years, it was permanent earlier, the Centre has increased its stranglehold on civil society activism. At least 10,000 NGOs have reportedly lost their licence. Sure, there is a need for transparency in the way foreign funds are deployed and stop their misuse, if any, but there are enough laws to take care of this.
The FCRA (Amendment) Act 2020, however, will result in salary cuts, lay-offs and a scaling down of projects, as it restricts administrative costs down to 20 per cent (from 50) of the funds coming in. It could dry up the money for less popular but equally important causes human rights, environmental justice, climate change, LGBT issues, etc, India will be the loser.