• NGOs and charities provide key services such as health care and education to hundreds of millions of Indians.
• BJP is targeting charities who are connected to its political opponents as well those who are Muslim or Christian in affiliation.
Since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached the highest echelon of India’s political system in 2014, his government has cracked down on thousands of charitable organizations and NGOs.
It is estimated that in total there are approximately 200,000 registered NGOs operating in India, which is more than the number of private firms in India’s agricultural and financial sectors. Indian NGOs are thought to employ over 2.9 million people.
For developing nations such as India, the NGO sector not only provides a stable source of income for otherwise improvised individuals and households but is also responsible for the rollout of innumerable services ranging from basic health care, education, microloans, and financial and legal advice to name a few.
In India where hundreds of millions of people live in rural areas with poor access to government funded public services, the presence of a charity or an established NGO often results in the difference between having access to the basic necessities of life and living a life riddled with destitution, disease, and depression.
Outlawing thousands of charities would then seem to be a manifestly unwise in a nation where almost half of the population lives on less than $3.65 USD a day according to World Bank statistics from 2021.
So why is Mr. Modi’s government so hellbent on closing charities?
The first group of charities Mr. Modi and his party, the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), are eager to target are those organizations who deemed to be political opponents by BJP bigwigs in New Delhi.
Usually, these organizations are suspected of having ties with the BJP’s largest political rival, the INC (Indian National Congress). Historically members of INC have been outspoken supporters of the NGO sector and have worked alongside grassroots organizations and NGOs to promote economic and political development for Indians.
The BJP has claimed however, that the results generated by the INC and its partnership with the NGO sector prior to the election of Mr. Modi in 2014 were extremely poor. The BJP criticized high overheads and large administrative costs in the NGO sector as being a detriment to development and instead has opted to fixate on promoting development via a large technologically advanced and centralised state.
Anesty International learnt this lesson the hard way, having its accounts frozen in a money laundering case in 2020.
The second group of charities to have sparked the ire of the government have been non-Hindu faith based charitable organisations, particularly those Muslim and Christian organisations.
Hardline Hindu nationalists have stoked false fears that such groups have been conspiring to forcibly convert Hindus to Islam and Christianity.
Last month in January, World Vision (one of the world’s largest charities which happens to be Christian) lost its licence despite having operated in India since the 1950s.
Unsurprisingly, Hindu organizations affiliated with the Sangh Parivar (a group of organizations which backs the BJP) have not been deregistered.
Undoubtably not only will banning charitable organizations make life more miserable for millions of Indians already living in poverty, but it will continue to further polarise India on political and religious grounds.
The BJP is set on making life worse for anyone who isn’t a patriotic Hindu nationalist. Given that India is heading to its national elections in April, tensions are on the high and risk of ethno-religious violence breaking out grows more probable as the days go by.
