New Delhi: The government cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licence of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) over the think tank allegedly “funding protests and legal battles against development projects such as coal mines”, ThePrint has learnt.
According to a government source, the think tank “misutilised foreign funds to affect India’s economic interests” in violation of FCRA rules.
“CPR is registered for carrying out educational activities, however, it used foreign funding for litigation activities,” the source said, adding that “some of the beneficiaries of CPR are also involved in protests against development projects including coal mines”.
The source added that CPR is engaged in publishing of “current affairs programmes”, such as an “overview on the CAQM Act (The Commission for Air Quality Management) 2021” and papers on “policy challenges”, which is prohibited under section 3 of the Act.
The document titled “Overview of the CAQM” and available on CPR’s website provides an overview of the new legislation, its strengths and limitations, and the path ahead for enabling ‘airshed-level governance’.
“With many significant questions yet to be deliberated on defining the boundaries of airsheds and designing institutions to govern them, the CAQM template may not necessarily be the most appropriate approach for replicating in other parts of India,” says the paper, before listing salient features of the law.
The other paper referred to by government sources is titled ‘Policy Challenges: 2019-2024; The Key Policy Questions for the New Government and Possible Pathways’.
Yamini Aiyar, president and chief executive of CPR, told ThePrint that the basis of the decision made by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to scrap the think tank’s FCRA licence is incomprehensible and disproportionate, and some of the reasons given challenge the very basis of the functioning of a research institution.
“This includes the publication on our website of policy reports emanating from our research being equated with current affairs programming,” she said in a statement Wednesday.
Such actions, she added, have had a debilitating impact on the institution’s ability to function “by choking all sources of funding”. Aiyar also said that the cancellation of the FCRA licence and the reasons furnished for it “undermined the institution’s ability to pursue its well-established objective of producing high quality, globally recognised research on policy matters, which it has been recognised for over its 50-year existence”.
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‘Diverted funds’
The government source quoted earlier further alleged that CPR “diverted” foreign donations to Non-FCRA entities to “fund protests and legal battles against development projects”.
“Foreign funding was used to fund paralegals for filing litigations against developmental projects including coal mines, which is not in tune with its FCRA registration,” the source said.
A valid FCRA licence is essential for any non-profit organisation to receive foreign contributions. Once granted, it is valid for five years and has to be subsequently renewed.
According to details on its website, CPR is a non-profit public policy research institution established in 1973.
The MHA had first suspended the think-tank’s FCRA licence for 180 days for alleged violations in February last year. The suspension was later extended.
This came two months after the Income Tax (IT) department, after a tax ‘survey’ at CPR’s premises, served a show-cause notice to the think tank asking why its tax exemption under Section 12A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, should not be revoked. The provision enables non-profit entities to claim full tax exemption under sections 11 and 12 of the act.
The tax exemption status was subsequently revoked last June.
‘Vindictive’
Praveen Chakravarty, chairman of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) data analytics department, termed the action by MHA “vindictive”.
“Modi government feared CPR for its uprightness and has resorted to a vindictive act of snuffing its funding by terminating the FCRA licence. Glitzy shows of G-20, ubiquitous posters of the Prime Minister and hugging world leaders are not what will propel India to the global stage. Instead, respect for institutions, fostering freedom of expression and a scientific temper of tolerance are what will earn reverence and goodwill for our nation,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
“Cancelling the licence of a research institution such as CPR will deal a death blow to India’s rich tradition of scholarship and rigorous thought by sending a signal to all other scholars and their institutions. It is a matter of shame for us that the mighty government of India should be so timid to feel bullied by a group of scholars and their research,” he added.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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