The Union government's crackdown on foreign funded NGOs which face allegations of using funds to create civil unrest, dissent and fuel protests has proved to be a damp squib. The home ministry is red faced after at least three NGOs banned from receiving foreign funds or put on the government watchlist after the Modi government came to power were recently accorded clearances erroneously by its foreigners division.
These NGOs are Greenpeace, Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace run by civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad, who had pursued the cases of post-Godhra riots victims in 2002, and controversial televangelist Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation.
Quickly swinging into a damage control exercise, the ministry has ordered a fresh cancellation of their licences under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. While MHA has once again cancelled FCRA licence of Greenpeace and declared Sabrang's licence null and void, it has said Teesta's CJP will not be allowed foreign funding as it remains in the "prior permission category ". A move is afoot to undertake an audit of renewal of licences of around 13,000 NGOs.
An embarrassed ministry has ordered an internal inquiry and audit and is roping in the Computer Emergency Response Team-India to determine the cause behind the goof up. CERT-IN deals with cyber security threats like hacking and phishing. The MHA suspects that hacking may have caused the online renewal of licences.
However, glaring gaps have exposed way the foreigners division of the union home ministry handled the issue.
Top sources in the ministry disclosed that the erroneous clearances were given in August - September this year despite the guidelines under the FCRA clearly say that files of such foreign funded NGOs whose licence has either been cancelled, or are under watch list or even in the process of action being initiated against them, will necessarily have to be put up to an officer not below the rank of joint secretary. Last year, the MHA had introduced an online system of FCRA clearances but that was meant for NGOs against whom no adverse report was found. Such cases alone were to be handled by the under secretary who could use the online system to clear their files to cut delays and avoid chances of NGOs pedalling influence.
But the malaise in the foreigners division runs deep. In May, the MHA realised that Teesta's file had been missing for the last three months. The ministry roped in the CBI which registered a case naming a foreigners division official Anand Joshi who was caught with incriminating documents. The incident happened months before the ministry was going to cancel the FCRA licence of Setalvad's NGO.
The faux pas does not end here. In September, the MHA realised that Naik's NGO, IRF, was given a clearance despite an investigation going on against it both by the MHA and the National Investigation Agency which was probing alleged terror links to ISIS suspects who claimed they were influenced by Naik. This goof up led to the suspension of then joint secretary Gopal Krishna Dwivedi along with three other officials of the foreigners division.
Dwivedi 's ouster from the MHA, however, did not prove sufficient as his predecessor in the ministry, incumbent joint secretary (foreigners division) Mukesh Mittal appears to have not learnt a lesson. There was no move in the ministry to examine whether along with Naik's IRF, some other banned NGOs were given clearances.
"Why did the ministry not undertake a review of all the controversial cases? How did it allow an automated system to take over the laid down procedures of individual clearances of files that are marked red?" asked a top government official. It is another story that the top bureaucrat of the foreigners division—additional secretary Bipin Bihari Mallick,who was holding charge of the foreigners division till last week, was suddenly divested of the charge and made in-charge of the disaster management division.
The MHA inquiry will now examine how both Mittal and Mallick did not monitor the cases closely and allowed them to slip into an automated system of online clearances which was introduced as part of Modi 's "Digital India" mission.
"The goof up clearly shows that the government needs to revamp the foreigners division in view of the national security concerns and ramifications. The common bureaucratic process is proving insufficient and a renewed attempt needs to be made to fix the system," a former foreigners division official, who was part of the government's to make the NGO policy transparent, said.
