How government is throttling civil society by cancelling FCRA licences of NGOs

Of many factors, one that makes India stand out in the world is that the nation is the world’s largest democracy with a population of 1.2 billion. The country shall complete 70 years of independence this year, and has never faced serious political instability or threat of military rule or dictatorship, barring an exception of 21 months in the 1970s when it was under Emergency.

India is definitely an example of a successful democracy if we go by the procedural definition of democracy and it is no doubt an achievement in itself.

However, the need of the hour is to ask ourselves whether, as a nation, we are proud of this achievement? If yes, what are we going to do to strengthen our democracy and to make it more accountable? And then, what does it take to make democracy accountable and what are we doing about it?

These questions become even more pertinent when steps are being taken by governments across the world to shrink the democratic space by throttling the voices of civil society, including in India.

Civil society is one important element that makes a democracy accountable. While celebrating the first international day of democracy in 2008, the UN secretary general commented that democracy everywhere is ultimately the product of a strong, active and vocal civil society.

In India, Professor Andre Beteille confirms that we live in the age of democracy and the civil society has to play an active role in it. In his very recent address, the UN secretary general restated that “civil society is the oxygen of democracy" and that "we see this clearly in the world’s most vibrant and stable democracies, where the government and civil society work together for common goals”.

However, today the scenario in the so-called stable democracies of the world does not seem to be promising and consistent with the above observations. In the US, which is one of the oldest democracies and the largest supporter of civil society in the world, there is growing anxiety about the future and nature of American democracy, in anticipation of a Donald Trump presidency.

In India too, the situation is no less than grim; the government cancelled the FCRA licences of 20,000 NGOs, preventing them from receiving foreign funds. These include prominent organisations such as Greenpeace, Lawyers’ Collective and Ford Foundation in India.

Apart from this, the most recent news came from Europe, where the Hungarian government expressed its intention to sweep out NGOs funded by Open Society Foundations, accusing it of “serving global capitalists and back political correctness over national governments”.

Before that, in 2015, the Russian parliament passed a Bill on "undesirable organisations", which will let the government ban activities of foreign or international non-governmental groups deemed to undermine "state security", "national defence" or the "constitutional order".

There are similar reports of civil society oppression from different parts of the world documented by Civicus in their report.

Thus, there are efforts around the world to muzzle civil society and the democratic space. The Indian government is also engaging in the same activities, which is certainly not suited to a country that is aspiring to be a global player with a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

When countries in the world are inclining towards building illiberal democracies and discrediting contributions of civil society, it is a chance for India to stand out to fortify its image as a truly responsible global player in world politics.

The recent steps taken by the government go against this very image of India as a responsible nation and a great democracy. On this background, it is important to take corrective steps and the following points are proposed for consideration:

According to data acquired by the CBI, it is reported that there are 31 lakh NGOs registered under the Societies Registration Act in 26 states. The NGOs registered under the other two acts (Indian Trust Act and Companies Act) are different and thus the number of total NGOs must be much higher than that.

First, what is required is that NGOs must be compliant to the statutory requirements of filing financial statements and thus practice transparency. In case of non-compliance, the government must take action, but only on the grounds of non-compliance.

The government should acknowledge the fact that some NGOs do indulge in corruption but not all. The contribution of some civil society movements and organisations has been remarkable in areas of health service delivery, employment and livelihood generation, and child labour eradication.

Apart from all these important functions, fighting for the rights of the vulnerable population, protection of the environment and economy, facilitating access to justice for the poor and vulnerable are also important functions that civil society actors are engaged in that helps bridge the gaps left by the government machinery. 

It is important that the government should evaluate its policy for the civil society in the country. In 2007, the erstwhile Planning Commission came up with a national policy for the voluntary sector. This policy was meant to cater to the entire civil society/non-government organisations in the country.

In the preamble, it stated that “this policy is a commitment to encourage, enable and empower an independent, creative and effective voluntary sector, with diversity in form and function, so that it can contribute to the social, cultural and economic advancement of the people of India.” The Indian government must revive this policy and bring it for public discussion with an intention to adopt it.

Holding the government accountable by questioning it about its various policies, programmes and actions is no doubt the hallmark of a good democracy. The individual people themselves cannot question the government and therefore the free press and civil society organisations are there to represent them.

Immediate steps needs to be taken in this regard. The Indian government should revoke cancellation of licences of all genuine and reputed civil society organisations and stop the witch-hunt against them; the government should also proactively enforce laws to prevent financial irregularities and take appropriate action against non-compliant organisations.

Lastly, the Indian government must bring back the discussion on national policy on the voluntary sector and take all steps to adopt it.

(Non-Government Organisations and civil society organisations are used synonymously.)

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