Catholic body meets Amit Shah, flags concerns over FCRA Bill

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) submitted a memorandum against the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, to Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday (July 10, 2026), Jonathan Lalremruata, advisor to the apex body of the Catholic church in India, said.

Cardinal Anthony Poola, Metropolitan Archbishop of Hyderabad and CBCI president, and Anil Couto, Metropolitan Archbishop of Delhi were present at the meeting.

“We appreciate that the Minister took the meeting in all seriousness as Union Home Secretary and officials concerned of the FCRA division of the Ministry were also present,” Mr. Lalremruata said.

The CBCI had sought audience with the Home Minister to express concerns about the provisions of the Bill and the FCRA Amendment Rules, 2026, notified on June 22. The Rules mandate NGOs to specify the list of activities that can be pursued by them under the five permitted categories — social, political, educational, cultural, and religious, and also state the geographic area where they would operate.

The Rules permit 16 categories of religious activities, “conduct of religious education, moral instruction, satsangs, discourses, and meditation retreats” but specifically bar “proselytisation”. In its memorandum, CBCI said the term should be omitted as it has no relevance to the FCRA activities and without a definition is sure to be misused.

“Inclusion of such words amounts to degrading the good intentioned charitable, educational, healthcare, and humanitarian services rendered by faith-based organisations. All such compassionate and charitable activities are directed only towards nation-building and public welfare, and should not be misinterpreted as acts of religious conversion,” CBCI said.

The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on March 25 but following an uproar by Opposition parties, its discussion and passage were deferred. One of the key changes proposed in the Bill is the appointment of a ‘designated authority’ to take over, manage, or dispose of assets created from foreign funds when an NGO’s FCRA registration is suspended, cancelled, or not renewed. This authority will have the powers of a civil court and can order the transfer or sale of assets owned by NGOs to either the government or any other body.

The CBCI opposed the provision stating it could be applied retrospectively. Its memorandum said the takeover of assets should take effect only after finalisation of the process of adjudication, including statutory appeal to a regular court.

“Violations of the law should be differentiated into minor and major. Technical violations or that of meagre financial value should be treated as minor and should not attract the major penalty of cancellation of registration/renewal or confiscation/cessation of assets,” the CBCI said.

Reacting to the meeting, Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal took to X, stating, “In typical BJP fashion, HM Amit Shah has lied to the CBCI about FCRA and is wrongly deflecting blame to hide his government’s culpability in weaponising the FCRA laws.” He said the Narendra Modi government has been “hell-bent on using the FCRA to harass vocal civil society organisations and minority-run institutions and take over their properties.” 

Registration under FCRA is mandatory to receive foreign funds.

“In 2026, first they sought to amend the FCRA legislation to give the Centre powers to seize properties of recipient organisations and also brought in provisions of ‘deemed cessation’ of licenses. After widespread opposition, they withdrew these amendments only to re-introduce them through the backdoor as delegated legislation. In these new rules, they are also preventing organisations from changing their scope of work or geography, and bringing in ideological scrutiny to disallow those who oppose them. I challenge the Home Minister to show if any of these low-trust, vindictive measures were part of the FCRA in 2010 when the UPA brought it in. These are all measures introduced by a fascist regime that wants to destroy the civil society space through its harsh and regressive control,” the Congress leader said.