Congress MP urges Speaker to ensure wider scrutiny of FCRA amendment bill

Congress MP K.C. Venugopal has urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to intervene over what he describes as inadequate consultation by the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026. In a letter sent on Thursday, Venugopal said there was “no meaningful consultation” with stakeholders and alleged that the bill could be rushed through Parliament during the forthcoming winter session.

He warned that such a process would undermine the purpose of referring the legislation to a committee. The MP asked the Speaker to ensure that the committee invites written memoranda through a public notice and hears oral evidence from affected groups. He also called for sufficient time for clause-by-clause consideration and said the committee’s reporting deadline should be extended if necessary.

The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on March 25 and referred to a 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee on August 12. Venugopal said a committee reference was intended to provide wider consultation and deeper scrutiny involving NGOs, charitable organisations, religious bodies, voluntary groups, legal experts and state governments. He said Opposition parties had opposed the bill because they believed its provisions could affect non-governmental organisations and minority institutions, including schools, hospitals, orphanages and charitable bodies.

He also claimed that previous enforcement of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act had resulted in thousands of licence cancellations, affecting aid for healthcare, education and livelihoods. Venugopal highlighted proposals to extend a restriction on foreign contributions to “any person” and to transfer an organisation’s funds and assets to a government-designated authority if registration was cancelled or not renewed. He said these measures had caused anxiety among civil-society institutions.

The source material does not include a response from the committee or the government to Venugopal’s allegations. The MP said Parliament should not consider the bill until the committee had completed what he called a genuine and comprehensive examination.