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Restrictions on Foreign Fund Flow to Christian Organizations in India Complicate India-US Ties

If the row over India’s proposed amendment of the FCRA persists alongside other irritants, the trade deal will remain in limbo for the foreseeable future.

On March 25, the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment (FCRA) Bill, 2026, was introduced in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament. The bill seeks to amend the FCRA Act 2010, which regulates the receipt and use of foreign contributions by individuals and organizations in India.

Since 2010, the act has been amended three times, most recently in 2020. A key provision of the recent amendment bill relates to the creation of a “designated authority” under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which has been empowered to provisionally take over, manage, and dispose of the assets of an organization if its FCRA registration is canceled, surrendered, or undergoes “deemed cessation” due to non-renewal. This change has generated considerable criticism. On August 12, parliament adopted a motion referring the bill to a 31-member joint parliamentary committee, which will scrutinize the bill and submit its report in the first week of the parliament’s winter session.

Beyond strong domestic criticism, especially from opposition parties, the bill has triggered a strong reaction from several American politicians, including Congressman Riley Moore, who slammed the bill as an “attack on Christians.” Senator James Risch, who heads the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described the proposed amendments as “deeply concerning” and said the U.S. would not “hesitate to call out countries who violate… human rights of Christians and other religious groups around the world.” In an opinion piece for the Washington Examiner in May, Congressman Chris Smith described the legislation as “designed to set up the expropriation of Indian Christians.”

Categorically rejecting such claims, India’s Ministry of External Affairs described the FCRA Amendment Bill as an “internal matter.” In a bid to alleviate Washington’s concerns, India’s Ambassador to the U.S. Vinay Mohan Kwatra took to social media to “debunk” certain “myths” surrounding the proposed bill. He said the bill seeks to improve transparency and make way for better governance and clearer rules. Kwatra highlighted how foreign contributions received by registered organizations in India have increased from $1.2 billion in 2010-11 to $2.67 billion in 2024-25.

Against this backdrop, U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor held back-to-back meetings early this week with Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. While the specifics of their discussions were not revealed, the timing of the meeting suggests that it was an attempt to prevent the issue from snowballing into a diplomatic crisis.

Notably, Gor also intensified his outreach to states ruled by opposition parties; he held meetings with the chief ministers of Karnataka, Kerala, and Telangana. Both Karnataka and Telangana are ruled by the Congress party, which has been extremely vocal in its opposition to the FCRA. The Kerala Legislative Assembly has even passed a resolution urging the Union government to repeal the amendments to the FCRA, claiming they are “a breach of Constitutional provisions and federal principles.”

Critics of the amendment bill highlight that tighter controls could make it harder for legitimate organizations to access overseas funding. Archbishop Joseph Dsouza, president of the All-India Christian Council, described the amendment bill as “legalized loot of the Indian Christian community and the global Christian community.”

International Christian Concern, which describes itself as a Washington D.C.-based religious organization serving persecuted Christians worldwide, alleged that under the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, Christian-aligned organizations in India are facing heightened scrutiny. It stated that more than 70 percent of NGOs whose licenses expired as of January 2022 were “aligned with Christian programs.”

In 2016, Compassion International, a Christian........

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