Home Min cancels CPR’s permission to receive funds from foreign sources
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has revoked the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), one of India’s most respected public policy think tanks, alleging violations of laws.
This means that CPR is now prohibited from receiving foreign funding. Its foreign donors included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, World Bank, Ford Foundation and Brown University, among others.
CPR has termed the ministry’s action “incomprehensible and disproportionate” and has pledged to pursue legal remedies.
The think-tank had come under scrutiny following an Income Tax Department survey in September 2022. The FCRA registration was initially suspended for 180 days in February 2023, and subsequently extended for another 180 days.
Over the last several years, the Home Ministry has cancelled the FCRA registrations of several NGOs and think tanks, alleging violation of laws, which were tightened a few years back through an amendment to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
Many experts and others, though, have termed the new laws and their implementation as targeted to organisations which do not do the bidding of the BJP-led Union government or are linked to people related to parties opposed to it.
In October 2022, the government cancelled the FCRA registration of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) and the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT), both headed by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.
