Overview
- A 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee, chaired by BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal, has been constituted to review the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill and begin formal hearings with a Home Ministry briefing at its first meeting.
- The bill would create a designated authority with power to vest, manage or sell assets created from foreign contributions when an organisation’s FCRA licence is cancelled, suspended or not renewed.
- The proposal also seeks to repeal Section 15 of the current FCRA, which now limits government power over how foreign funds and assets are used and disposed of.
- Opposition parties, church bodies, chief ministers from Christian-majority states and leaders in the Northeast have protested the changes and will press those concerns in committee hearings; two Rajya Sabha MPs, Javed Ali Khan and James P.K. Sangma, have been named special invitees to broaden representation.
- The JPC can summon experts and organisations for evidence and its report will determine the bill’s next steps in Parliament, a process that could directly affect NGOs, schools and charities that rely on foreign funding for services and livelihoods.