Bleeding hearts presupposes bleeding money, especially from invisible pockets. The fact that Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) require both government and private money to survive is an oxymoron.
NGOs are meant to be agents of change who serve the marginalised sections of the society. They perform duties which government agencies fail to provide.
Social revolutionaries like Vinoba Bhave and Baba Amte provided credibility and respectability to the NGOs they patronised and promoted.
Thousands of volunteers became a force that gave succour to deprived Indians. These were genuine foot soldiers, who abhorred the comfort zones of luxury. An NGO was a mission and not a fashion. Their rural office bearers wore chappals and kurtas, traveling by the cheapest modes of transport. Their lifestyle was their statement. They measured their achievements in terms of the amount of work completed, rather than the millions that poured into their coffers.
Now, social work is chic. Designer kurtas and branded jholas are NGO attire. Substantial numbers of them have premium addresses in cosmopolitan cities. They are the purveyors of conscience who have perfected partisan politics to create an alternative architecture for pushing public policy.
Business class versus the lower class is the motto of these upmarket NGOs who revel in globetrotting, ranting against India and promoting foreign interests in return for liberal funds.
Rustic and low-profile social leaders have been elbowed out by high-profile activists with accent and access. The non-governmental sector is the platinum platform for senior government officials, politicians and glamorous people to boost connectivity and rally against the establishment.
Conventional philanthropy has been replaced with professional compassion. The New Age reformers survive and thrive on the blase attitude of ruling parties at the Centre. However, when they came in direct confrontation with the state by stalling and sabotaging development projects, the establishment began real time surveillance on their activities.
It was found that many NGOs were never questioned and made accountable. Some of them were even supporting anti-national elements. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Sangh Parivar have always been uncomfortable with the dominance of foreign-funded NGOs.
They see them as an institutionalised vehicle for the conversion, subversion and destruction of Indian culture.
Even the Congress, which incubated the NGO culture, had realised their adversarial actions. Last week, Modi decided to tighten their free run.
The NDA government amended the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act to limit the inflow and use of foreign contributions, prohibiting public servants from holding an office in a NGO and fixing a limit of just 20 per cent of the donations for administrative expenses.
It is not the Modi government which has imposed restrictions on NGOs. The UPA government led by Manmohan Singh had altered the original FCRA in 2010 by inserting a clause to regulate access to foreign money or hospitality for any activity “detrimental to national interest”. Under the new provision, “any organisation of a political nature” was banned from accepting foreign funds.
FCRA was born during the Emergency in 1976 to ban the use of foreign money in political activities and to prevent foreign interference in domestic politics. The current debate over NGOs giving financial support to anti- NAA and anti-NRC forces has raised questions about the misuse of funds to foment collective communal chaos. Earlier, NGOs were deployed by vested interests for conversions and raising religious edifices. They have been augmenting agitational politics at the cost of public exchequer.
The growing suspicion about NGOs has less to do with their legitimate semi-political activities and more to do with their alarming growth of both numbers and funds. According to official data, India with over 32 lakh NGOs tops the world list with an NGO for every 500 people.
According to a published report, the number of NGOs is 250 times more than the number of healthcare centers and double the number of schools. In 2015, the Supreme Court directed the CBI for a status report about all NGOs operating in India.
Since most were managed by powerful and influential personalities in government and politics, they never filed mandatory accounts and reports to the government. It was discovered that many city-based NGOs were used to fund the foreign travel of their office bearers and for higher foreign education of their children.
Salaries for domestic and personal help, capital expenditure on luxury cars and housekeeping were paid out of the moolah collected from India and abroad.
During the past few years, NGOs preen under a new global moniker – Think Tanks. A study conducted by Indian intelligence agencies has redflagged the role of these new self-proclaimed intellectual gyms for exerting undue influence and creatively connections in the establishment.
The report reveals that most of these think tanks are either promoted by retired senior civil servants and defence personnel or by corporates.
They collect a nominal donation from domestic sources, but their foreign travel and local offices including other facilities are financed by foreign dosh. They organise meetings, symposiums and talks in which powerful lawmakers and officers participate.
With the new law coming into force, over 100 MPs, MLAs, members of the judiciary and media personalities will have to snap their connections with think tanks registered under the FCRA.
During the past two decades, natty NGOs have collectively received over Rs 2 lakh crore for splurging — twice the annual budget of many states.
In the absence of transparency, millions have been either siphoned off or spent on secretive activities. Surprisingly, despite Modi’s angst, Indian NGOs collected a record Rs 18,000 crore in a single year during the NDA regime.
Modi has realised the damaging and incendiary voltage of the non-formal sector. During his first term, the Home Ministry withdrew the registration of over 20,000 NGOs. Many more would be losing their recognition soon as they would be unable to comply with the new laws.
Taming the NGOs would be a Herculean task for the government. Vocational liberals and their civil society collaborators are up in arms accusing the Centre of stifling dissent and curbing human rights. Expect foreigners in the NGO industry to launch a global tirade against the government.
But the major casualty of the tainted NGO-for-luxury empire was Indian philanthropy, which created hospitals, old age homes, schools in tribal areas and orphanages.
Fashionable, glamorous and anti-India NGOs must be declared a SIN (Subversive Institutional Network) and dealt with accordingly. Or, else the wages of sin will have to be borne by the taxpayer.
PRABHU CHAWLA
prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com Follow him on Twitter @PrabhuChawla