Modi Government’s ‘Control Strategy’? Amnesty Warns Against New NGO Restrictions

Amnesty International and seven other global civil society organizations have called on the Indian government to withdraw recent amendments to the country’s foreign funding rules for NGOs, warning the changes further restrict civil society space.

The joint statement, signed alongside groups including Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists, and Front Line Defenders, followed India’s Ministry of Home Affairs adopting the Foreign Contribution Regulation Amendment Rules on June 22, granting the government sweeping new powers over NGOs receiving foreign funding.

According to Amnesty, the changes significantly expand an already restrictive legal framework built under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act of 2010, which governs how foreign contributions can be accepted and used by individuals and organizations in India. The new rules apply to nearly 14,500 organizations currently holding an FCRA license, alongside any non-profit that may seek one in the future.

The scale of enforcement under the existing law is substantial: the Ministry of Home Affairs has cancelled 22,498 FCRA registrations over the past decade, according to the joint statement, with many organizations targeted specifically over their human rights work. Amnesty International India board chair Aakar Patel said that as of March 26, 2026, official data showed 21,933 organizations had lost their FCRA licenses, depriving them of essential funding and often forcing closure or severe restriction of their activities.

Patel said the FCRA has been cynically amended and misused since 2010 to harass, intimidate, and censor human rights defenders and NGOs conducting vital human rights work across India, adding that Amnesty’s research shows the organizations most affected work on minority rights, freedom of expression, environmental rights, and climate action. He called the latest amendment a blatant abuse of the legislation aimed at further restricting civil society under the pretext of national security.

The list of organizations that have faced FCRA-related action illustrates the breadth of the law’s reach: Amnesty International India itself had its bank accounts frozen in 2020, while the Centre for Policy Research had its registration cancelled in 2024 and Oxfam India’s license went unrenewed in 2021. Other affected entities include the Missionaries of Charity, Jawaharlal Nehru University, IIT Kanpur, and Sonam Wangchuk’s education organization SECMOL — spanning religious, educational, research, and development institutions rather than concentrating in any single sector.

Under the newly adopted rules, a designated government authority would take over managing or disposing of assets built with foreign funds by any NGO whose registration has been suspended, cancelled, or not renewed — a provision Amnesty argues goes well beyond financial oversight into direct government control over organizations’ remaining resources even after they’ve lost their funding license.

The Indian government has framed the changes as part of a broader push toward transparency and accountability for foreign-sourced funds, following international interest, including from the United States, in India’s regulatory approach to overseas NGO funding. Many organizations affected by past cancellations, including Amnesty International India and Oxfam India, have disputed the allegations underlying those actions.

Whether the Indian government responds to this latest international pressure by revising the rules, or proceeds with implementation as adopted, will likely determine how India’s approach to foreign-funded civil society continues diverging from the standards international rights groups are pressing it to meet.