Framing FCRA

 Currently the Indian media is literally on the boil. Look up the news channels or listen in to the social media network. The theme of the day is no longer whether or not the parliament will yet again be adjourned. Hardly a novelty the ruckus is these days, right? 

Well, the debate of the day is whether the government will introduce the amended FCRA. Okay, let us define FCRA first. The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) is an Indian law administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and it governs how domestic associations, groups, and NGOs receive and use funds from outside India.

Fair enough! Why the raging debate then? Let us look at the history of the debate first. Actually, it was during the Emergency that the FCRA was  first introduced. The first amendment was as early as 1984. It has been re(de)fined in 2010 and 2020.

Since 1976, donations by foreign funds have been looked at with suspicion. National sovereignty and national security can comfortably and subtly be undermined by an apparently innocent donation, is the basic argument.

Now with the unmistakable Deep State by hook or by crook 'manufacturing consent' (to borrow Noam Chomsky's title), not to forget the rather obvious proselytising proclivities, such donations appear deceptively dangerous, though the garb be of minority rights and civil society securities . Hence the heated debates!

For a literature student like me, with deep interest in the declining humanities, the debates surrounding the FCRA are absolute intellectual pyrotechnics, be it channels such as "Times Now", "Wion", "The Republic" or the "NDTV", the "CNN", and others of their ilk. 

It is on the social media, however, that most interesting discussions emerge. This very evening, on this day which is the World Tribal day, just a day after the 'Quit India' movement anniversary, I listened to Pathikrit Payne analyse the contours of the issue on Karan Verma's channel.

 Honestly, one never noticed how an hour or so flew by! Some proof such discussions are that awareness is afloat in the ambience, however much Meta's of the world may manage the data or the flow thereof! 

Pratima@ The FCRA debates forever remind me of the "Ministry of Truth" and its "Thought Police" and their axioms in "1984" by George Orwell. Indeed a technologically abled 'Brave New World' ushering in fierce fears!

Quote of the day:                                                            "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes," argues Mark Twain. 

Word of the day: Proselytising                                     Proselytising is the act of trying to convince someone to change their religious faith, political party, or core way of life to match your own. It means actively working to recruit new people into a specific belief system or cause, often through lures such as money, jobs or a comfortable life.