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FCRA licences of NGOs linked to Gandhis cancelled over fund misuse: Govt
HT first reported the cancellation of RGF’s FCRA licence on October 23. A day later, the MHA said that it had cancelled the licence of RGCT as well.
New Delhi: The Centre cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licences of two Gandhi family run non-government organisations – Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) and Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) - in October as they violated several provisions of the act such as using funds for personal gains, diverting it for undesirable purposes, not keeping the government informed about the source and utilization of funds and not using the designated bank account for these organizations, the home ministry said in Parliament on Wednesday. It also added that it has cancelled the FCRA licences of almost 7000 NGOs between 2017 and 2021.
HT first reported the cancellation of RGF’s FCRA licence on October 23. A day later, the MHA said that it had cancelled the licence of RGCT as well.
Responding to an unstarred question by two Congress members of parliament (MPs), Digvijaya Singh and Amee Yajnik in the Rajya Sabha, union minister of state for home said Nityanand Rai stated: “The FCRA licence of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) was cancelled under section 14 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 due to violation of provisions under section 11 and conditions of registration under section 12(4)(a)(vi) of the FCRA, 2010.”
These provisions deal with various aspects of FCRA which involve informing the ministry of home affairs’ FCRA division about source of foreign funds and its specified usage, not diverting it to any individual or account other than the work mentioned while receiving such funds, maintaining a record of utilization of such funds and using designated bank account for receiving the funds (State Bank of India).
Both the organisations are headed by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The cancellation of the licences triggered a political row after the Congress called it an attempt to divert public attention from main issues plaguing the country while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the Gandhi family and organisations linked to them cannot be above law.
There was no immediate reaction from the Congress till late on Wednesday.
An interministerial committee headed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) verified the foreign funding of two organisations and submitted a report to the MHA after which the decision to cancel the licences was taken in October, according to an officer who didn’t want to be named.
As reported by HT, the MHA could ask the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a formal probe into the violations.
CBI is empowered to investigate cases pertaining to FCRA violations. It has, since 2018, investigated foreign funds received by Amnesty International India and its related organisations, funds received by religious organisation Tablighi Jamaat (probe initiated in 2020) and alleged FCRA violations by an NGO linked to lobbyist Deepak Talwar (2017) among other cases.
In May this year, the federal agency also investigated a case of an alleged organised nexus between NGOs, government officials and middlemen for “illegal clearance” of FCRA licences in lieu of bribes. At least 14 people, including six government servants, were arrested after the probe agency retrieved ₹3.21 crore during raids at 40 locations across multiple cities in the same month.
RGF was set up in 1991. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former finance minister P Chidambaram, and Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Suman Dubey and Ashok Ganguly are its trustees.
RGCT was established in 2002 . Rahul Gandhi, Ashok Ganguly, Bansi Mehta and Deep Joshi are its trustees.
BJP president J P Nadda , in June 2020 alleged that RGF thrice accepted donations from the Chinese embassy, a charge hotly denied by the Congress.
Rai also informed Parliament on Wednesday that the Centre has cancelled FCRA licences of 6,677 associations/NGOs over five years between 2017 and 2021.
