The ministry of home affairs (MHA) has cancelled the foreign contribution regulation act (FCRA) licence of leading think-tank Centre for Policy Research (CPR). The move comes about a year after its FCRA licence was suspended, as it allegedly did not follow norms while receiving funds from foreign sources. The MHA had also accused the CPR of transferring foreign contributions to other entities and depositing them in non-designated accounts.
"The FCRA has been cancelled via order received on January 10. The institution will weigh its options to seek justice," Yamini Aiyar, President, CPR told ANI.
The MHA cited reports published by CPR on "current affairs programmes" as one of the reasons for the cancellation.
Without the FCRA licence, the NGO will not be able to receive any funds from abroad. It can also not use the existing foreign donations without the MHA's clearance.
The donors of CPR include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania, the World Resources Institute, Duke University, Hanns Seidel Foundation, the State Bank of India and Namati Inc, among others.
In December 2021, the MHA had refused to renew Oxfam India's FCRA licence. Parallelly, the Central Bureau of Investigation is also investigating Oxfam India.
In March last year, CPR's FRCA licence was suspended for 180 days and was later extended.
In September 2022, the income tax department had conducted a survey at CPR’s premises, and as part of the survey follow-up process, the NGO received several notices from the department. I-T Department surveys were conducted on NGO Oxfam India and the Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation (IP SMF) in Bengaluru too.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh had then remarked that it was "absolutely atrocious" that research & advocacy organisations, and independent charitable trusts like CPR, Oxfam, and IPSMF were raided "at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah."
"It's a deliberate move to exterminate all independent media and voices!" Ramesh had said.
The Centre for Policy Research founded in 1973 is a "non-profit, non-partisan, independent institution dedicated to conducting research that contributes to high quality scholarship, better policies, and a more robust public discourse about the issues that impact life in India," as said on its website.
