{"id":5652,"date":"2020-01-16T15:05:27","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T09:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=5652"},"modified":"2020-01-16T15:05:27","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T09:35:27","slug":"foreign-contribution-regulation-act-fcra-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/foreign-contribution-regulation-act-fcra-regulations\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign Contribution (Regulation)\u00a0Act, (FCRA) regulations:"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Relevance: Mains: G.S paper II: Polity: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary Ministries and Departments of the Government. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/FCRA.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5653\" src=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/FCRA.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Context:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Central Bureau of Investigation raided Amnesty International\u2019s offices in Bengaluru and Delhi based on allegations that the NGO had violated provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, and of the Indian Penal Code. Amnesty has been vocal about human rights abuses, notably in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam.<br \/>\n\u2022 This is worrying given that international funding is crucial for NGOs to function.<br \/>\n\u2022 The contribution of NGOs to human rights and public awareness is significant in India.<br \/>\n\u2022 The recognition of the rights of homosexuals and transgender people, for instance, would have been unimaginable without the sustained effort of civil society organisations.<br \/>\n\u2022 Developments in the public provision of health and education are unlikely to come about without pressure by NGOs.<br \/>\n\u2022 Most NGOs are neither politically powerful nor have great financial capacity.<br \/>\n\u2022 Thus there is a power imbalance in this struggle, exacerbated by financial restraints on organisations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What is \u2018public interest\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The FCRA regulates the receipt of funding from sources outside of India to NGOs working in India. It prohibits receipt of foreign contribution \u201cfor any activities detrimental to the national interest\u201d.<br \/>\n\u2022 The Act specifies that NGOs require the government\u2019s permission to receive funding from abroad.<br \/>\n\u2022 The government can refuse permission if it believes that the donation to the NGO will adversely affect \u201cpublic interest\u201d or the \u201ceconomic interest of the state\u201d.<br \/>\n\u2022 This condition is manifestly overbroad.<br \/>\n\u2022 There is no clear guidance on what constitutes \u201cpublic interest\u201d. Consequently, a government could construe any disagreement with, or criticism of, any of its policies as being against public interest.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Consequences on rights:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The restrictions also have serious consequences on both the rights to free speech and freedom of association under Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(c) of the Constitution.<br \/>\n\u2022 The freedom is based on the idea that individuals can form voluntary groups and pursue various interests.<br \/>\n\u2022 It is a form of collective expression and thought.<br \/>\n\u2022 The Supreme Court has held that this right includes the right to continued sustenance of the association, without unreasonable restraint (Damyanti Naranga v. Union of India, 1971).<br \/>\n\u2022 The foreign funding prohibition also negates the significance of voluntary, non-profit associations in a democracy.<br \/>\n\u2022 Free speech is valuable not because everyone agrees, but because it enables a culture of dissent, deliberation, and debate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Affected free speech:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The right to free speech is affected in two ways.<br \/>\n\u2022 One, by allowing only some political groups to receive foreign donations and disallowing some others, the government can ensure a biased political debate. It can reduce critical voices by declaring them to be against public interest.<br \/>\n\u2022 Two, this chilling effect on free speech can lead to self-censorship. Speech that is protected by the Constitution can be construed as \u201cagainst public interest\u201d.<br \/>\n\u2022 Thus, the standard regulates speech in a manner that is incompatible with the Constitution. In Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015), the Supreme Court was similarly faced with overbroad classifications in the Information Technology Act.<br \/>\n\u2022 Striking down Section 66A, the Court held that the Act could be used in a manner that has a chilling effect on free speech. This has already happened in the case of the FCRA. NGOs need to tread carefully when they criticise the regime, knowing that too much criticism could cost their survival.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Conclusion:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Democracy requires critics and civil society.<br \/>\n\u2022 This is why invoking the FCRA to curb the work of NGOs is deeply troubling.<br \/>\n\u2022 In a democracy, criticism should be welcomed, not repressed. No government should ever be able to choose its own critics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Relevance: Mains: G.S paper II: Polity: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary Ministries and Departments of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,18],"tags":[392],"class_list":["post-5652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-general-studies-ii","tag-union-public-service-commission-upsc"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5654,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5652\/revisions\/5654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}