'Baseless and politically motivated': BJP dismisses Cong's allegations against HM Shah on FCRA

New Delhi, Jul 10 (PTI) The BJP on Friday dismissed Congress leader K Venugopal's allegations against Home Minister Amit Shah on FCRA as "baseless and politically motivated". The ruling party asserted that the Narendra Modi government functions on "high-accountability' and nation-first' principles", not on the erstwhile UPA government's "low-trust policy". This came after Venugopal attacked the BJP and Shah, alleging that the Modi government has been "hell-bent" on using the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) to "harass vocal civil society organisations and minority-run institutions and take over their properties". In a post on X, the Congress general secretary said, "In typical BJP fashion, HM Amit Shah has lied to the CBCI about FCRA and is wrongly deflecting blame to hide his government's culpability in weaponising the FCRA laws," Venugopal said on X. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) on Friday urged Home Minister Shah to withdraw the FCRA Bill, 2026, and the recently notified Rules, stressing that both be redrafted after wider consultation with stakeholders. Hitting back at the Congress general secretary, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said in a post on X, "Mr KC Venugopal, it seems that the entire Congress party has gotten into the habit of serving up lies and everyone in the party has been assigned the responsibility of spreading different lies." The confusion being spread by the opposition and "some vested interests" regarding the amendments to the FCRA is "completely baseless and politically motivated", the BJP MP said. "Mr Venugopal, all the allegations you have made are not only unfounded but also laughable. This bill is going to come to the House anyway. There will be discussion there too. Truth will come out," Patra said. He added that the Modi government does not operate on the "low-trust policy" of the erstwhile Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government but on "high-accountability and nation-first principles". Venugopal alleged that the government "severely tightened" the FCRA rules in 2020 to increase the time period for which organisations can be suspended, gave greater powers to the Centre to scrutinise them and even limited their administrative expenses, essentially crippling them from carrying out their routine activities. "In 2026, first they sought to amend the FCRA legislation to give the Centre powers to seize properties of recipient organisations and also brought in provisions of 'deemed cessation' of licenses," the Congress leader said on X. After widespread opposition, they withdrew these amendments only to re-introduce them through the backdoor as "delegated legislation", Venugopal alleged. The Congress leader alleged that in these new rules, the government is also preventing organisations from changing their scope of work or geography, and bringing in ideological scrutiny to disallow those who oppose them. "I challenge the Home Minister to show if any of these low-trust, vindictive measures were part of the FCRA in 2010 when the UPA brought it in. These are all measures introduced by a fascist regime that wants to destroy the civil society space through its harsh and regressive control," Venugopal said. "The Home Minister must stop misleading the CBCI, eminent personalities and the general public, and immediately withdraw these rules," the Congress leader demanded. PTI PK PK KSS KSS