Govt: Gandhis' NGO FCRA licence revoked over Chinese funding

New Delhi, December 13

Countering the Opposition Congress for creating a ruckus in Parliament, Union Home Minister Amit Shah today claimed the party’s “first family-led” NGOs had received funds from the Chinese embassy and Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation.

Shah alleged that the actual reason behind the disruptions in Parliament was not the clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Arunachal, but a question on the cancellation of the FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) licence of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF).

Addressing the media outside Parliament, he said, “The Opposition leaders did not allow the question hour to run in the Lok Sabha. They did so citing the incidents in Arunachal. But they had no plausible justification to do so when the Parliamentary Affairs Minister had already said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh would make a statement at 12 noon.”

The minister claimed he “understood the Opposition’s cause for worry” when he glanced through the schedule of the question hour. “The fifth question in the schedule was related to the cancellation of the RGF’s FCRA registration and it was raised by a Congress member,” he said.

Had he got the opportunity, said Shah, he would have told Parliament that during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 fiscals, the RGF had received Rs 1.35 crore from the Chinese embassy. “Since the transaction was not in conformity with the FCRA laws, the MHAcancelled its registration,” he said.

Received Rs 1.35 cr

• Home Minister Amit Shah claims Rajiv Gandhi Foundation received Rs 1.35 crore from the Chinese embassy from 2005-07
• Accuses Rajiv Gandhi Trust of receiving Rs 50 lakh from Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation in 2011
• As the grants violated norms, the NGOs’ FCRA licence was cancelled, he says