In an open letter to the Prime Minister signatories to the letter B G Verghese, M S Swaminathan, Soli Sorabjee, Fali S Nariman, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Justice Ruma Pal, Admiral R H Tahiliani, Sunita Narain, Alok Mukapadhyay, Jagadananda, Bhaskar Rao, Ashok Khosla and Nitin Desai, have asked the government to reconsider introduction of the Bill on the grounds that it creates a highly restrictive and discriminatory regulatory regime for civil society organisations receiving foreign contributions for their work.
The signatories say that the Bill comes at a time when India's voluntary or non-profit sector is being celebrated the world over for its achievements in various fields including the right to information and environmental protection. A significant number of NGOs in the country receive funds from well respected international donor organisations that fund similar initiatives in other countries.
Notably, the Bill runs completely counter to the National Policy on the Voluntary Sector 2006 which pledges to encourage, enable and empower voluntary organisations, and lists enabling them to legitimately mobilise necessary financial resources from India and abroad as a specific objective. However, in reality the new law would give executive authorities vast discretion -without adequate checks and balances -to clamp down on foreign funding for NGOs and thereby prevent their functioning.
NGOs critical of government policies will be particularly vulnerable under the proposed legislation, they said.
The open letter ends with the following appeal: "In the interests of safeguarding the fundamental freedoms of speech, expression and association, we urge the Union Cabinet to reconsider passing the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Bill, 2006. Enactment of such a Bill can undermine democratic space and the independence of the voluntary sector in India which presently provides significant support to the people of India. This surely cannot be the government's intention".
