Govt steps up heat on NGOs; puts Vatican's arm, Caritas Internationalis, on prior permission list

Stepping up crackdown on NGOs, India has put Caritas Internationalis India, an arm of the Vatican, under the prior permission category list. Caritas India partners with 350 NGOs across India and boasts of a force of over 250,000 volunteers.

Explaining the rationale behind the move, government sources said, Caritas was indulging in anti-India activity, including launching protests against Kudankulam nuclear power project and involved in funding political activities that is against the FCRA norms.

"It is a part of scrutiny that is being done by the government as another 1000 NGOs are also being investigated for misuse of foreign funding. The government has taken the mildest step against Caritas. Many others would face cancellation of their FCRA license for similar reasons," said sources.

A couple of months ago the union home ministry had put Ford Foundation on prior permission list bringing in wrath from international quarters.

Putting an NGO in prior permission category list means that the foreign funding cannot come directly into the BGO's account as the RBI has to route every fund to the union home ministry first that decides whether it should be released to the NGO or not.

The step, however, could bring international reaction as Caritas Internationalis, founded 1897 is a confederation of 165 Catholic relief, development and social service organisations operating in over 200 countries and territories worldwide and the Vatican describes Caritas as its official voice "in relation to its teachings in the area of charity work".

Unfazed by government's move, assistant executive director of Caritas India, Fr. Paul V Moonjely, said, "We don't have any issue with the government, we have been are working for the last 53 years in India. If we are clean and taking care of government regulations why we need to fear. May be the government is doing it to put stringent practices, we welcome it.

We have been complying with all the FCRA rules in a transparent manner and working with the government through bilateral and global funds. We go to places where even government machinery cannot reach."

Incidentally, in India Caritas is involved in a big way in a community development work, disaster risk reduction programmes, emergency response and vector borne disease control programmes and is working in close coordination with several government departments. It roughly receives Rs50 Cr annually as global funds to carry out these initiatives besides generating funds within the country.

In a related development, the union home ministry is understood to have revoked FCRA permit of Teesta Setalvad's NGOs Unity for Peace & Justice and Sabrang International for using funding for political activity and anti-national activities.

Teesta could not be contacted for comments.

At the instance of union home ministry the Registrar of Societies of Tamil Nadu has also sent a show cause notice to the Greenpeace India threatening the cancellation of the NGO's society registration due to questions over its operations and funding.

"Greenpeace respects the law and we have cooperated with the authorities. We are confident that we will be able to address the issues raised by the Registrar and prove beyond doubt we have acted within the law," Greenpeace India programme director Divya Raghunandan said.

The show cause letter, dated June 16, is in response to an inspection of the society's office in Chennai on 3 June by the Tamil Nadu state government. That inspection had the intention to look into the organisation's society status - the legal basis on which Greenpeace India Society's main operations take place.