India: Now it’s persecution by law

Voice podcast host Kenneth Harrod speaks with Bishop Joseph D’Souza about India’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), created about 50 years ago to stop foreign funds being used for terrorism but, he says, increasingly used to target civil society and Christian organisations. D’Souza alleges that recent non-transparent license renewals led to nearly 22,000 groups being denied registration, many of them Christian, disrupting education, feeding, healthcare, and jobs for the poor, and cites the closure of Compassion’s work affecting 140,000 children. He warns proposed new amendments, due for discussion in Parliament’s monsoon session in July after being deferred, would create a “designated authority” able to take over institutions and assets with even partial foreign funding, apply powers retrospectively, and force costly legal challenges, calling it legalized persecution and urging UK Christians to pray the bill is dropped.