RS ticket behind Scindia tantrums

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

RS ticket behind Scindia tantrums 

BJP ready to welcome Jyotiraditya 

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Nov 26

A Rajya Sabha ticket seems to be at the heart of bitter battle within the Madhya Pardesh Congress and cause of recent twitter storm involving senior party functionary Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Biennial poll for three Rajya Sabha seats is due to be held in April 2020.

The Congress, with 115 MLAs in the House of 230, can easily elect elect one member while the BJP will also win one seat with the backing of 107 MLAs. The bitter battle will be witnessed for the third seat which could go either way. Digvijay Singh is retiring in April 2020 and a natural claimant for the re-nomination. Kamal Nath can ill-afford to deny him the ticket. Though its for the high command to select the candidates for two out of the three seats. But given the ticklish political situation in the state, the high command is likely to leave it at the wisdom of the state leadership to take a call on candidates.

Sensing that he may not have a place in Rajya Sabha next year and any major role to play in state politics, he felt increasingly isolated. With Rahul Gandhi taking a back seat, he is now finding going tough at the AICC level too.

It is in this background that rumours were rife for months that Scindia may walk out of the Congress and join the BJP. He has been having a running battle with the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh. Scindia was even denied the post of MPCC chief's post too.

An annoyed Scindia, changed his profile on the twitter where he removed his past association with the Congress and merely said:“Public servant, cricket enthusiast.” Though he clarified later that the changes were made a month ago and no politics be attributed to it.

When asked a senior BJP leader said, “Its up to the party high command to take a decision. But there is no recommendation from the state leadership in this regard.”

Two of his aunts; Vasudhara Raje Scindia and Yashodhara Raje Scindia are already in the BJP and playing a key role. The BJP is not averse to his joining the party particularly when it is following an “open door policy.”

After all, he is the only surviving Maratha dynasty though its property battle is being fought amongst the family members.

The real estate empire of the House of Scindias empire is worth Rs 20,000 crore alone.

Ends

BJP worried as Modi Magic waning

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

BJP worried as Modi Magic waning

Of 24 states, BJP could win 12, 

It lost 12 in four years

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Jan 6

Reality is donning the BJP strategists as it is preparing for the Lok Sabha polls due this April-May. The BJP's spin doctors may have created a hype about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's invincibility during this period.

But the data presented by the party's election strategy group revealed that the BJP thrived on the anti-incumbency sentiments in Assembly polls states after states in between 2014 to 2017. By 2018, the Modi magic started waning. Of the 24 state assembly polls held during the past four years, the BJP could captured only 12 states from Congress and its allies. The BJP was also successful in meting out a humiliating defeat to the CPM's Manik Sarkar government in Tripura.

But the BJP failed to see the writing on the wall in in Goa in 2017 which it failed to win. There was a huge anti-incumbency against the BJP in the state and could win only 13 out of the 40 seats. It was BJP's drawing room skills that paid rich dividends. The same happened in Manipur which the BJP failed to win but formed the government. Delhi and Bihar defeats were considered an aberration by the BJP. But by 2018, the major shocker came when BJP failed to snatch

Karnataka and the anti-incumbency didn't work in favour of Modi-Shah team.

The table showed that if the BJP won 12 states, it failed in equal number of states. The party's core group is worried that the BJP failed to retain its own three states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Though BJP chief Amit Shah has held met party Mps from these three states separately in three batches, he did not ask them why the party lost. He did not give them the reasons of the party's defeat either. He merely directed them that they should now be in the field and work for the victory by highlighting the achievements of the Modi government.

The party strategists point out that the wrong reading of the massive mandate in UP where BJP secured 325 seats on its own made the leadership complacent. It did not crack the whip in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh where workers were saying that leaders must be changed.

In 2017, the BJP snatched Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand from the Congress, UP from SP-BSP and could barely retain Gujrat. But the BJP lost its moorings in 2018 when it failed to win any state except Tripura.

Modi himself tried to explain in an interview recently about these defeats and explained that BJP was not a force in Telangana and Mizoram.

Therefore, the challenges before the leadership are humongous in 2019 in several states. Party strategists admit that Modi's own magic can ensure party's return at the Centre. Otherwise the record of 24 state assembly results does not augur well. is not very placating to the BJP.

Ends 

Congress win a warning bell for BJP in 2019

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Congress win a warning bell for BJP in 2019

politics of hate, DeMo, GST cost BJP Dearly

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Dec 11

The outcome of Assembly poll results in three Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan is a warning bell for BJP for the battle of 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Though Congress came a cropper in Telangana where it had tied up with the TDP and lost power in Mizoram. But the results established beyond doubt that the “invincible” BJP can be beaten in its strong hold of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where it was ruling for 15 years. The entire RSS and BJP leadership had put its might behind Shivraj Singh Chouhan. But nothing worked there. The landslide victory of the Congress in Chattisgarh is the biggest surprise of this poll as no one expected it. It was always felt that Jogi-BSP team will cut into the Congress vote bank. But it seems, the opposite happened and it was the BJP which was routed. Its a different matter that BSP and Jogi put together were able to manage respectable nine seats in the 90 member Assembly while the BJP was reduced to 13 and Congress secured 63. Similarly, in Rajasthan where the BJP won all 25 Lok Sabha seats in 2014, crumbled though secured respectable number of seats.

With general elections barely six months away, the real battle has begun particularly in the cow belt and Hindi speaking states comprising of 224 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP had captured as many as 174 seats on its own in these ten states.

If sources are to be believed the G-21, as the conclave of 21 Opposition parties is now nick-named which met yesterday, will now emerge stronger. The BSP and SP which did not participate yesterday in the G-21 conclave, will work out modalities.

The presence of Aam Admi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal was a clear signal that Congress president Rahul Gandhi has shed his inhibitions of working with the Delhi Chief Minister. The G-21's sole aim is to defeat the BJP during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as PM Modi is no more invincible.

The outcome is attributed to the defeat of the idea of Demonetization and hap-hazard manner in which the GST was implemented by the Modi government. Similarly, the Modi government will also have to look towards rural distress with a new prism.

The BJP's analysis is that the Ram Temple issue did help the party to prevent further slide in Madhya Pradesh though another section differs and maintains that Modi should have stuck to the Development agenda. The religious polarisation is not a big vote catcher.

The spate of lynchings may have pleased the hardcore Hindutva types, but it cannot swing the voter angry with the government, as was seen in Rajasthan. The Yogi Adityanath brand of spreading hate failed miserably in all the three states where he campaigned in a big way.

The opposition parties must have taken note of these developments and swifty calculations must be going on about positioning and tactics for the 2019 elections. The show of unity two days before the results, where almost all opposition leaders, including Mamata Bannerjee and Arvind Kejriwal showed up but Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati did not, is a precursor of the times to come.

Praful Patel, senior NCP leader and Rajya Sabha MP told Lokmat today that this victory will give a big fillip to the Opposition unity and new chapter will be written.

Ends 

Enthused Congress pitches Sonia in Telangana poll campaign

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Enthused Congress pitches Sonia in Telangana poll campaign

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Nov 21

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi may have stayed away from poll campaign in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. But she has decided to address at least two major rallies in Telangana.

Enthused by the internal surveys conducted by two professional agencies and ground reports emanating from the state, Sonia Gandhi has given nod to campaign. Though she has been keeping away from active politics ever since Rahul Gandhi took over as Congress president. But there is a growing demand for the “Amma” from the Congress candidates. The Congress candidates argue that Telangana was carved out as a separate state by Sonia Gandhi when UPA was in power and her appeal is greater than that of Rahul Gandhi in the state.

Secondly, the newly forged ‘grand alliance’ comprising of the TDP, CPI, Telangana Jana Samithi headed by KCR’s former ally Kodandaram and Congress, is clawing its way up despite the ruling party’s early start to the campaign. These parties contested separately during 2014 Assembly polls and the TRS emerged victorious with 63 seats in the Assembly of 119.

The Congress secured just 21 while the TDP bagged 15 seats. The TDP was then, however, partner with the BJP, which secured 5 seats. The All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) secured seven and others 8. The grand-alliance can take solace from the fact that the vote share of the TRS in 2014 polls was only 34.30% while the Congress got 25.20% and TDP polled 14.70%. The coming together of Congress-TDP-CPI-TJS will give State Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao run for the money.

It is this assessment of the Congress that made Sonia Gandhi to campaign in the state. The fact that more and more leaders are deserting the TRS including the sitting Lok Sabha MP, Vishweshar Reddy indicates that all is not well in the state for the ruling TRS.

Ends

The loan waiver gambit

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a way of making juicy promises studded with numbers that he emits with great certitude. Some time it works, sometime it doesn’t. When it fails to work, it blowbacks on his government with unfailing accuracy. Just as it’s happening for over a month now. A rosy promise he made in 2014 is now chasing him. During his general election campaign, Modi assured the farming communities that, if he could wield power, they’d get a 50 per cent return on their investment in agriculture. Such return on investment in the medium term is many times over that in oil, gas, or even information technology in its heydays.

But the fact is that Return on Investment (RoI) in agriculture is moving southward, not the other way round. I am not sure if the government has the vision to see light at the end of the tunnel in which agriculture in India has gotten itself imprisoned over decades. Had successive governments implemented some innovative schemes in the agriculture sector, farmers would not have suffered as they did during the several decades. Modi knew the plight of the farmers as he was at the helms in Gujrat as Chief Minister.  In 2014, Modi offered moon to the farmers and that’s Modi’s present unenviable situation. With farmer unrest setting off as Jat farmers’ pandemonium in Haryana and Delhi, it has now engulfed Maharashtra, parts of Uttar Pradesh, even distant Tamil Nadu. In Madhya Pradesh, where an insensitive state government failed to curb police brutality at Mandsaur, bordering Maharashtra, six farmers were killed in firing. Adding insult to injury, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, whose calling demanded of him to rush to the spot, remained unperturbed as he appeared on a television program the same day by the side of a yoga tycoon, and bending his torso in the same asana as the latter’s. Meanwhile, the next day at Mandsaur, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was grabbing headlines as police of the BJP-ruled state of Madhya Pradesh prevented his entry and arrested him.

Agriculture accounts for only 17.32 per cent of India’s GDP yet 58 per cent of the rural households depend on it as the principal means of livelihood. Common sense dictates that a sector being so overcrowded, its stakeholders would insist on multiple reforms, like educating and re-skilling themselves for alternative vocations, forcing the state to invest heavily on agricultural infrastructure, help diversify produces and design ‘smart’ subsidies. In all these tests, if the Congress-led UPA were an utter failure, the BJP-led NDA is under performer.

However, the Modi administration was quick at promising reform. Irrigation is an example. Only 47 per cent the country’s farms are irrigated, though it generally means pumping up groundwater with bore wells and dry up the underground aquifers. It is sheer waste of water. However, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), with a Rs 54,000-crore allocation (in five years), is floundering because it has little interest in minor irrigation that brings water directly to the farmer—the budget for such schemes has been cut 30 per cent this year. The explanation was that higher allocations have been made to the states. The government’s focus is on large projects, 92 of them, most of which are under various stages of completion. The problem is such long term projects do not help the farmer facing consecutive droughts in short term.  

Irrigating India being too challenging a task, the Modi administration has gone for the easy option, which is loan waiver. For this, however, the copyright goes to Congress which waived farm loans countrywide in 2007. Its futility is best shown by agricultural economist Ashok Gulati in a chart that shows the state-wise tepid and unequal growth of agricultural output between 2007-09 and 2014-15. In 2004-05 prices, the annual growth rate of agriculture in India was only 3.2 per cent. Punjab, once the granary of India, witnessed its declining growth trend dropping even faster to 1.3 per cent.

Loan waiver, therefore, is not linked to agricultural productivity. Instead, it is a fallout of rural indebtedness which has become, over centuries perhaps, a signature of India’s village life. From Nehru to Modi, no regime could combat it. Up to 57 per cent of farm families in Maharashtra are indebted. For India, the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) measured it as 52 per cent in 2013. The anxiety of loan default sits on the mind of India’s rural people like dead weight, accounting for most farmers’ suicides (in Maharashtra, 4,291 in 2015). Politicians try to cash in on this anxiety, like Yogi Adityanath who, after taking charge of Uttar Pradesh, promised a loan waiver of Rs 30,792 crore.

And that blew the fuse on the farming front. Across Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, farmers are demanding full waiver of all outstanding loans. Maharashtra has already buckled under farmers’ pressure, and others too may not have much option. But, with total agricultural loan standing at Rs 12.6 lakh crore, it can be fully written off at the peril of “severe systemic consequences”, as minister of state for agriculture Parshottam Rupala said in Parliament. The other anodyne in the government’s chest of medicines is the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism. As subsidy, MSP has gone a long way in curbing India’s crop diversity, by keeping it primarily a wheat-and-rice country. But, with rising income levels, popular food choice is changing, and, according to a study by Credit Suisse, per capita consumption of cereal is dropping 1 per cent annually over the last 30 years. That explains bursting cereal warehouses.

What is destroying agriculture? Can it survive with so many people jostling for a sector of so little value? How can farming be modernized when the holdings are pocket handkerchief-sized? Modi rightly abolished presentation of a  Railway Budget. But its high time that a separate Krishi Budget be introduced. This will force the bureaucracy completely insensitive to plight of the farmers and rural economy and lame-duck ministers to help in changing the face of the farmer. My humble advice is Modi’s yoga-loving ministers and chief ministers can apply their mind to these issues, rather than assuring fictional profit in agriculture, or busting the exchequer to write off bad loans.

Modi govt worried, may hike Kharif crop prices

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Modi govt worried, may hike Kharif crop prices

Early rains and package may douse fire

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, June 8

With farmers agitation spreading like a wild fire, Modi government is taking every possible step to douse the fire. If the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was directed to handle the issue with sensitivity rather than be in a denial mode that farmers were not killed in police firing. It was after the Prime Minister personally spoke to Chouhan before leaving for Astana, that the MP government announced a cash compensation of Rs one crore each to those killed in the firing. The Madhya Pradesh Home Minister who had blamed the Congress for firing on the farmers had eat the humble pie and confessed that they were killed in the police firing.

As if this was not enough the MP Government is also opening new procurement centers across the state to procure pulses an onion at much higher price.

The prime minister’s focus before departing for Astana was to ensure that farmers’ agitation doesn’t spread in other states particularly in the neighbouring Gujrat and Rajasthan. Since loan waiver package have already been announced in UP and Maharashtra, it is expected that situation will be under control.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh was asked to oversee the situation in states in the absence of the Prime Minister. It was also decided that Union Cabinet’s decision relating to 14 crops of Kharif season be deferred. Union Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh who was to announce Cabinet’s decision, deferred his press conference yesterday. No reasons were given either by his ministry or by the government. It seems that the government wants to announce the steep hike in procurement prices of Kharif crops in a big way. It may now be done after the return of Prime Minister and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley from Paris.

The government also expects that the agitation will subside as the Monsoon is setting in MP, Rajasthan and other parts of North India within the next few days.

THE BUSINESS OF POLITICS

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

While the Supreme Court has, in its indisputable wisdom, held it unnecessary to probe the mysterious scribbling on confiscated files of Sahara and Aditya Birla Group officials regarding payments made to politicians, the cloud of suspicion will not lift anytime soon. It is largely because that politics in India is fuelled almost entirely by illicit financing from corporate. In the 2013 CBI raid on Hindalco, the ABG company, a set of documents was recovered from the computer of the CEO which read: “Gujarat CM—Rs. 25 crore. 12 paid. 13?” Yet another Income-Tax Department raid in November 2014 on the Noida office of the Sahara Group led to seizure of computer data pointing to distribution of Rs 115 crore to political leaders specifically identified. Rs 40 crores given at Ahmedabad to “Modiji”. Rs 10 crores given to “CM Madhya Pradesh”. Rs 4 crore to “CM of Chattisgarh”. Rs 1 crore to “CM of Delhi” (Shiela Dixit at that time). The attempts by the companies to make these appear to be innocuous business transactions were ludicrous. The Hindalco CEO told investigators all he meant by “Gujarat CM” was “Gujarat Alkalis and Chemicals.” Then what did “C” and “M” stand for? The official had no answer.

Published in LokmatTimes on 17th Jan

The honourable Supreme Court, however, has found these papers to be of “little evidentiary value” as there was no “corroborating evidence”. In the context of Indian politicians, I don’t see how rational it is to expect that politicians would accept illegal payments and issue signed receipts. Nor will the alleged payment show up on the list of assets of the payee. Even if it did, it would not be an easy job for the investigator to access the VIP account book. On the other hand, the practice followed from Jain Hawala case in the 90’s is to let investigators carry on with their job regardless of proof of receipt. In the Jain Hawala case, the court issued “continuousmandamus” to CBI to find evidence for prosecution. It is another thing that the exercise was a blot on the judiciary as everything was done at the instance of the SC and it was thrown into the dustbin by the SC later.

More significantly, to close investigation into such doubtful payments on the ground of their inadmissibility as evidence may weaken the government’s case against, say, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal. The party’s MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Tapas Pal were in CBI custody and now in judicial lock up. Their detention is largely due to jottings in a diary reportedly belonging to Gautam Kundu, owner of Rose Valley Corporation, a Ponzi-scheme firm (much like Sahara) which is alleged to have had collected nearly Rs 20,000 crore by duping the public with promises of unrealistic returns. Until sufficient evidence is obtained to prosecute the MPs, it will not only weaken CBI’s case but add credence to TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s charge. It was Ms Banerjee who charged that her party is a victim of witch hunt as she was the first to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s November 8 decision to scrap 500- and 1000-rupee notes.

Published in LOKMAT on 17th Jan

It is obvious that the ‘great Indian swindle’ of winning elections and extending political influence with corporate slush funds and, increasingly, with money collected from ordinary people by modern avatars of fraudster Charles Ponzi a century ago, is not easy to go. It is linked with a section (29C) in the Representation of the People Act that allows donors under Rs 20,000 to go anonymous. It is not difficult to see that the invisible donors, who contribute nearly 70-80 per cent of the funds of political parties, are channelling either tax-evaded cash of business houses, or it is, as is increasingly evident, a large share of ordinary people’s savings.

Can this evil be fought off by streamlining the election law? The Prime Minister has lent (verbal) support to a move to bring down the limit of ‘anonymous donation’ to political parties from Rs 20,000 to its one-tenth, Rs 2,000. Alternatively, there are suggestions to change the law by making all political donations open to public viewing, as is the practice in most western democracies. It may be a good beginning for cleansing the political system. But is it enough?

Published in Lokmat Samachar on 17th Jan

I doubt it. Electoral politics in India was always expensive due to the country’s size, not to speak of its topographic and cultural diversity. Over the decades, it has been witnessed that mere cost of election campaign is a fraction. On the other hand, it involves coaxing and cajoling pressure groups to stay on board, which is costly. Caste leaders or clan heads need to be kept happy. The hands of support are extended to the highest bidder. Election also involves winning over a sizeable chunk of the bureaucracy. On the election day, a ‘friendly’ police chief or an ‘amiable’ magistrate is worth a thousand ordinary party workers.

It is obvious that the funds required for such a gigantic operation cannot be sourced from nameless ‘well-wishers’. Nor can corporate houses alone bear the cost, as the chief source of their expendable black wealth, is shrinking following trade contraction worldwide. The tax evasion through over-invoicing or under-invoicing is becoming extremely difficult world-wide. The future of political funding will, therefore, rest on Ponzi operations like those of Sahara, Rose Valley or the infamous Saradha Finance, also involving the TMC party. Investigation of Saradha and Rose Valley have shown that their tentacles have spread far and wide—to Haryana, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Assam and Jharkhand, not to speak of West Bengal. The ordinary Indian has strong saving instincts but few instruments to save. Banks are rare, a stark fact that came to light in the wake of the recent demonetisation. Poor man is dependable on these swindlers in every nook and corner of the country as banks were never for the poor. That makes the common man a prey of fund swindlers, so long as they are ready to share the booty with politicians powerful enough to protect them.

Congress’ Cinderella Syndrome

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Results of elections to five assemblies last week have certainly put the BJP in an advantageous position vis-a-vis the Congress. By winning in Assam, a border state with a long history of ethnic conflicts, it has finally been able to pitch its tent in the north-east.

Federally Yours

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Indian politicians are obsessed with thinking of politics as a mere game of numbers- not one of parties gaining support, or losing it, due to the correctness, or otherwise, and how they're seen to be influencing people cutting across regional or caste lines. An alliance at the top, politicians love to believe, is spontaneously translated to addition of numbers at the bottom. It is not smart thinking as, with the spread of literacy, awareness and satellite television, voters and even lower-rung party workers are getting increasingly prone to draw their own road-maps. Instead, our politicians still talk of merger and alliance as India has remained fixed in the 70's, when the concept of a "front" or large alliance forged at the top and going down to the bottom gained currency for the first time.

Modi wages war against NGOs thrived over foreign funds

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

FOREST Vs COAL

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fulmination at the "five-star NGOs" before a recent meeting of judges and law bureaucrats could well be due to the overdose of bile at the very thought of Teesta Setalvad, India's 'NGO queen' who has been harrying him in and out of courts for well over a decade now. But the issue is not personal. It is ideological in its essence. Nor is there any doubt that the bleeding-heart donors at home and abroad who have kept the Indian civil society on the job have shown very little perception of the country's dire need to move out of its centuries old poverty trap. And that requires millions of surplus agricultural workers to be relocated to new urban spaces, with jobs that pay, to build new roads, expand the railway network, and to dig up wherever energy resources may lie. It is obvious that the need of the nation surpasses that of the communities temporarily distressed by new constructions, but the NGO frame of mind is to pre-empt the short-term pain; if it eliminates the long-term gain as a result, so be it.

Having been elected as prime minister exactly a year ago, Modi was quick to assess the essentially political nature of the civil society's resistance to his developmental work. Since there is a provision in the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), the nodal law enacted during Indira Gandhi's Emergency, that the Intelligence Bureau should do spot verification of NGOs' accounts, sourcing of funds, and their end-use—a provision that was not followed during the UPA years—Modi put it to use in right earnest. The result was most embarrassing for the previous rulers as it transpired that of the 22,707 NGOs that were in business in 2011-12, as many as 10,343 did not care to file their annual return (mandatory under FCRA) for any year between 2009 and 2012. And yet, as the IB report highlighted, most of these recipients of foreign donation were indulging in protest acts over their traditional targets: nuclear power projects, mining, large dams and even construction work. The report ominously mentioned a "negative impact" of 2-3 per cent on GDP growth as a result, and darkly hinted at possible involvement of foreign powers competing to achieve their own goals in India. 

However, Modi didn't need to tweak FCRA rules framed by the Congress governments. The only difference being that it winked at their violation. As expected, the Home Ministry began a crackdown on a scale that had happened only in 1976, the year that the law was given effect, in the midst of a perceived opposition by foreign powers to the Indira Gandhi government. However, the historical contexts between then and now are different. Forty years ago, neither did India abound with 'troublesome' non-profits organizations (with the exception of George Fernandez and his railway workers' union, perhaps) nor did donations from abroad flow like a river into Third World countries. But now the magnitude of donation is rising fast. It was Rs 11,544 crore in just one year, 2011-12.

Even more worrisome is the fact that many NGOs have been sharply politicised. The FCRA rules are liberal; they have provision for organisations having political objectives. They may even resort to political actions like 'rasta roko' and 'chakka jam', but the intentions and activities must be clearly stated before licence under FCRA is issued. But most NGOs' compliance level has been low. It also seems they are being prodded by their donors to take to the streets against projects of national importance, for example the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu. The project had begun in 2002, but its first unit went on stream in 2013. The delay is largely due to the activities of a few NGOs who had inflamed passion of the local fishermen, making them believe a nuclear power plant in the area could result in abrupt depletion of the fishing stock. However, the motive of the NGOs themselves remains a mystery, with a speculation that the US could be the culprit as it was unhappy about Russia, supplier of the plant, gaining entry into the potentially large Indian energy market. Even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, known for his avoidance of public venting of opinion, particularly on contentious issues, described the Kudankulam agitation as the handiwork of "foreign funded NGOs".

The new NGO battlefield is Mahan, a coal block on the edge of a forest in Madhya Pradesh. The coal mine was to be jointly developed by Hindalco and Essar, but UPA's former environment minister Jairam Ramesh put a spanner in the works, saying the forest could not be destroyed. When Ramesh was overruled by the then Group of Ministers chairman Pranab Mukherjee, Greenpeace, the largest NGO in the world, headquartered in Amsterdam, fielded its volunteers in a guerrilla-style operation. This face-off is continuing even after NDA coming to power. As Greenpeace India executive Priya Pillai was ready to board an aircraft on her way to London, where she was scheduled to make a presentation on Mahan to a group of British MPs, she was pulled back under executive order. Since then Greenpeace’s accounts have been frozen, along with those of 34 other NGOs. The licences of over ten thousand others have been kept in abeyance and those of 165 are under scrutiny. Under scanner is the licence of Ford Foundation, which has funded many cutting-edge research projects, in India and around the world.  

Modi is perfectly justified in telling the NGOs (and their donors) that they must act within the law. But it is also a clash between two world views. The one that nationalist governments like that of Modi cherish obviously has very little space for environment. But Greenpeace was founded “to ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity”. Ford Foundation was founded in the 1940’s by the original owners of the Ford Motors with the objective to make the world free from wars. If the Earth cannot nurture life, or aggressive nationalism fuels a war, can economic growth sustain?  Thus it is necessary to have a voice of dissent, but the civil society too must not take running NGO as a profession. Besides, they must give up a forest or two to get in exchange electricity that can light homes and hospitals and schools.

(The author is National Editor, Lokmat group)