In former times it was fashionable for our imperial masters in Delhi to blame CIA funding for all the things in the country which they found upsetting or embarrassing. The irrepressible Piloo Mody went around Parliament wearing a placard around his neck stating that he was a CIA agent. His attempt at humour was not appreciated by self-appointed desh-bhakts. Today, we know from Mitrokhin’s diaries that in the interests of bipolar symmetry the KGB was pretty active in funding and manipulating the Indian scene.

The attack against NGOs (foreign funding being a mere red herring) comes from three sources. Firstly, the bureaucracy, which believes that the Indian Sarkar is supreme and not responsible to anyone, has found the non-governmental voluntary sector a menace. Have you ever asked a functionary in a government office why you need to fill out four forms in triplicate, attach three challans and stand in interminable queues at six different counters where you are always directed elsewhere when you get to the top of the queue? The functionary invariably yells at you for having the intolerable temerity to question him and the awe-inspiring state he represents. NGOs ask difficult questions and make loud noise regarding matters that the grand Officer/Commissioner would rather not have publicly aired.

At a time when FDI is being opened up for corporates in every sector, when FII funds flood the stock market, when our defence ministry is purchasing arms from umpteen foreigners (US, UK, France, Sweden, Israel, Russia, to name a few), why should the funding of NGOs by foreigners be an issue? But don’t you know that funding from the Middle East for sinister Islamist activities and fanatical NRI funding for sinister Hindutvic activities are a menace to India and the ever-so-fragile Indian state? So here we have the second and third sources of opposition to NGOs — the political right or what passes for it and the political left as we have it. Neither side will admit that the new law will have little or no impact on extremist funding mechanisms.

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