India’s Growing Suspicions Around Foreign Funding

Amitabh Behar, director of the National Foundation for India, recently joined the Open Society Foundations for a critical discussion of the Indian government’s increasing regulation of nongovernmental organizations and general suspicion of foreign funding.

In recent weeks, Greenpeace has had its foreign funding permit revoked and may shutter its Indian operations. The Ford Foundation has been placed on a national security watch list following complaints about its support for a vocal activist and critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Economic Times reported that “the [Modi] government has cancelled the registration of 10,117 nongovernmental organizations, frozen the accounts of 34 associations, prohibited 69 more from receiving foreign contribution and placed 16 foreign donor agencies including Ford Foundation under the ‘Prior Permission’ category.” 

Many civil society activists fear the crackdown is narrowing the space for free expression in India. America’s ambassador in Delhi has said it is having a “chilling effect” on democracy. Are these fears and suspicions justified, or might they represent the prologue to a more complicated dialogue around the public sphere?

Listen above.