As Secretary of State Marco Rubio prepares to travel to New Delhi to meet Indian leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is poised to pass a law that could do lasting damage to the relations between our two countries — but if Indian leaders set the bill aside, it would be a win-win for both countries.
During its “Monsoon Session” from July 21 to August 12, the Indian Parliament is set to consider a bill amending India’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. If adopted, the bill would sharply expand the ability of the Indian state to seize the property and assets of groups that receive foreign funding — the vast majority of these being Christian churches and charities, such as hospitals and schools. In effect, the total property of entire churches and dioceses could soon be at risk of being taken over by the Indian state.
The FCRA bill would permit state takeover of assets of foreign-funded groups, such as churches, whose licenses to receive foreign funds lapse, are denied, or are not renewed. In the Indian system, this happens often and for many reasons — usually for minor, technical, or accounting errors. The effect is that, for an error in a single transaction, the entire property of a church, including equipment, land, schools, hospitals, and bank funds, could vest immediately in a government-designated authority, which could then manage, sell, or otherwise dispose of them at will.
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Worse, the bill’s “vesting” provisions apply if even a small portion of an asset was financed with foreign contributions — meaning, for example, that the entire assets of a diocese, owning perhaps hundreds of churches, could be seized for an error in processing a single small foreign donation.
Worse yet, the authority to seize assets would apply retroactively, so organizations that have had their FCRA licenses revoked or not renewed years ago could still have their assets seized today.
The temporary 2022 suspension of the FCRA license of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity illustrates the risk — under these amendments, all of the order’s assets could have been seized outright and permanently lost, even though the license was eventually restored.
It’s important to state that concerns about the Indian government’s respect for religious freedom long predate the government of Modi and the BJP. Previous Indian governments, led by the Congress Party, also failed to respect religious freedom. The “anticonversion” laws predate the rise of the BJP, the party Modi leads. Yet, Modi has been the prime minister of India since 2014 — he and the BJP must take full responsibility for the FCRA law they are proposing.
Fortunately, the bigger picture for U.S.-India relations is much brighter. India is right to see itself as a civilizational state, a Hindu cultural superpower. It is also a vibrant democracy — both free and stable, and by many measures, one of the most successful countries in the world. The United States and India need to form a true partnership. As the Chinese government subjects its people to utterly dystopian surveillance and social controls, and Europe tragically declines, there is no other partnership between countries that could benefit humanity more than one between the U.S. and India.
Creating this partnership will be a delicate task — we must have true respect for each other’s cultures and be genuinely willing to learn from each other. Yet, it is difficult to see how that relationship can develop if the government of India passes legislation designed to set up the expropriation of Indian Christians.
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This was, after all, precisely the path taken by Russian, Chinese, and other communist governments — and it did as much as anything to drive a permanent wedge between them and the U.S.
I urge Rubio to work with his Indian counterparts toward the withdrawal of the FCRA amendments. Improving U.S.-Indian relations must include the freedom for faith-based organizations to operate in India without having their assets nationalized.
Chris Smith is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District.