Venugopal seeks LS speaker Birla’s intervention over FCRA Bill scrutiny

• K.C. Venugopal asks Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to intervene over concerns about inadequate stakeholder consultation on the FCRA Amendment Bill

• The Congress MP seeks public submissions, oral evidence and sufficient time for detailed scrutiny, including a deadline extension if needed

• He warns against bringing the Bill before the House until the Joint Parliamentary Committee completes a comprehensive examination

Congress MP K.C. Venugopal on Thursday urged Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla to ensure wider consultation on the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, expressing concern that the parliamentary committee examining it could be working towards its hurried passage in the forthcoming Winter Session.

In a letter to the speaker, Venugopal questioned whether the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was conducting meaningful engagement with affected organisations. He warned that an accelerated process without adequate scrutiny would undermine the House’s decision to refer the legislation to the committee.

Venugopal asked Birla to ensure that the JPC issues a public notice inviting written submissions and hears oral evidence from stakeholders. He sought sufficient time for the exercise, including an extension of the committee’s reporting deadline if necessary.

The Congress MP also called for members to have a full opportunity to examine each clause. The Bill should not come before the House until the committee has completed a substantive and comprehensive review, he said.

Introduced in the Lok Sabha on 25 March, the Bill was referred to a 31-member JPC on 12 August following opposition objections.

Venugopal said its provisions had raised concerns among NGOs and minority institutions, including schools, hospitals, orphanages and charitable organisations. He described these bodies as an important part of India’s local development and welfare network, serving communities across faiths.

Among the provisions he questioned were proposals to extend restrictions on foreign contributions to “any person” and to transfer an organisation’s funds and assets to a government-designated authority if its registration is cancelled or not renewed.

He argued that these measures had created uncertainty among affected institutions. He also claimed that the use of the FCRA in recent years had resulted in thousands of licence cancellations, disrupting support for healthcare, education and livelihoods.

Venugopal said referral to a JPC should lead to broader consultation and closer examination. He called for the committee to hear NGOs, charitable and religious institutions, voluntary organisations, legal experts and state governments before finalising its recommendations.

“It has, however, been learnt that no meaningful consultation with stakeholders is taking place, and that there is an intention to have the Bill passed hastily in the forthcoming Winter Session,” he wrote.

If those concerns were borne out, he said, the committee process would risk becoming a formality rather than fulfilling its intended purpose.

Venugopal further argued that public confidence in Parliament depended on laws being made after proper deliberation. He expressed confidence that Birla would ensure the committee fulfilled the mandate for which it was constituted.

Sharing the letter on X, the Alappuzha MP described the legislation as sensitive, with significant implications for the constitutional rights of minorities and civil society groups.

He said Parliament needed assurance that any Bill emerging from a JPC had undergone rigorous consultation and scrutiny. Without that, he warned, the exercise would be meaningless and amount to “a fraud on the Parliament”.

With PTI inputs