The Catholic Church in India has rejected allegations of a “Christian conspiracy” behind the stalling of legislation to tighten controls on foreign donations after the government postponed the bill a second time and referred it to a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) following protests by churches and opposition parties.
Sections of India’s mainstream and social media have alleged that the Church orchestrated opposition to the measure and that the United States pressed the Indian government on the Church’s behalf.
“We do not indulge in any conspiracy. We put our concerns across to our government and it decided to refer the FCRA Bill [the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act] to the JPC,” Father Mathew Koyickal, deputy secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, told EWTN News on Aug. 20.
The conference is the umbrella body for Catholics of the Latin, Syro-Malabar, and Syro-Malankara Churches in India.
The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act has governed foreign donations in India since 1976. It is administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which tracks how domestic groups, trusts, and charities receive and use money from abroad.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government amended the act in 2020 and has tightened FCRA rules several times since coming to power in 2014, curbing the flow of funds to Christian and advocacy groups. Critics say the tightening advances a Hindu nationalist agenda. Fewer than 15,000 of some 52,000 FCRA accounts are now active, according to the government’s FCRA online dashboard.
The roughly 37,000 licenses canceled or not renewed include those of Church charities and Christian social action groups, along with Indian and international advocacy networks such as Amnesty International, Bread for the World, Compassion International, and Greenpeace.
In March, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced a harsher amendment to the FCRA and listed it to be passed in Parliament on April 1. Opposition protests inside Parliament and public opposition — including from the Catholic Church — forced the government to delay the bill to the monsoon session.
Ahead of that session, the government notified new rules on June 22 requiring groups that receive foreign funds to specify their activities by category and geographical area, to disclose social media accounts, websites, and publications, and to pay a separate fee for each category and each area in which they operate. Political content is barred, and the rules set high penalties for each infringement.
With protests spreading to more areas, including Christian-majority states such as Mizoram, and with opposition parties accusing the government of choking civil society groups and the churches under a Hindu nationalist agenda, the government put the bill on hold on Aug. 5 and referred it a week later to a 31-member joint parliamentary committee that includes opposition members. The committee will scrutinize the bill and report to Parliament during the winter session.
‘Join the dots’
Amid steady news coverage of the FCRA amendment, Republic TV — known for speaking up for the BJP government — devoted a segment on Aug. 19 to what it called the link between the bill and the student protests.
“Why is FCRA being linked to the CJP [Cockroach Janta Party] protest? And is there actually a connection?” the anchor asked. “The issue gained traction after the Catholic priest was seen marching with the CJP in New Delhi. This is amid the U.S. also warning that the new FCRA bill could damage the India-America relationship.”
The report, presented by the channel’s editor Niranjan Narayanswamy, put the question directly: “Are you wondering what does the church have to do with the Jantar Mantar protest? It’s about students, but why is the church being a part of it? Why are Americans taking an interest in the protest?”
It went on to allege that foreign money routed through Christian organizations had reached Maoist-affected areas such as Chhattisgarh, where it was “being used by church bodies to convert and to push people into becoming Maoists,” and described the funding as part of a push into India by “the American deep state,” including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The segment closed: “Join the dots and watch this space.”
The protests it referred to were mounted under the banner of the Cockroach Janta Party, a satirical youth movement that grew out of anger over repeated leaks of national entrance examinations, including the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, the fiercely competitive national examination for admission to medical courses. Weeks of demonstrations, centered on Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and marked by baton charges and tear gas, ended after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on July 25.
“Vested interests are behind floating baseless conspiracy theories, [as they are] embarrassed by government going soft on FCRA amendment. We challenge them to prove such wild claims,” Koyickal said.
Jesuit Father John Chathanatt, former principal of the Jesuit theologate Vidyajyoti in New Delhi, told EWTN News: “We are not surprised with such wild conspiracy theories being spread whenever the BJP government narrative fails. Since it could not pass the FCRA bill, the blame is being put on church.”
“They even found a hook to peg the Vatican conspiracy theory linking it to a Jesuit from Kerala working at the Rome Generate,” Chathanatt said.
The Kerala allegation
Hindu nationalist outfits alleged that the CJP protest was part of a Vatican conspiracy led by a Kerala priest. The allegation was made by K.S. Radhakrishnan, a philosopher and former vice chancellor of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit at Kalady, who had long been described as a friend of the Catholic Church and who is now state vice president of the BJP in Kerala.
The claim, which went viral on social media in southern Kerala and drew furious rebuttals from Catholics, named Jesuit Father George Mutholil — former Jesuit provincial of Kerala and, since 2019, the Society of Jesus’ regional assistant for South Asia and a general counsellor to the superior general in Rome — as the organizer of the CJP protest.
Mutholil told EWTN News that the claim was “built on a single unverified podcast quote and gets basic facts wrong.” He added: “This is the familiar move: when there’s anger to redirect, blame the minority.”
The American strand
American interest in the bill is a matter of record. Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, wrote in May that the amendment would disproportionately affect Christian charities and churches and could “do lasting damage to the relations between our two countries,” and he urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to raise it during his visit to India.
Rubio began that visit on May 23 in Kolkata, at the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity, before traveling on for talks in New Delhi. In early August, Rep. Riley Moore, R-West Virginia, called the amendments a “clear attack against Christians” and warned they could affect relations between the two countries. Sujeet Kumar, a BJP member of Parliament, wrote to Moore on Aug. 10 rejecting the claim that the bill would enable a government takeover of churches.
Church officials in India say none of this was done at their instance. Savio Rodrigues, a Goa-based journalist and BJP member who founded the news portal Goa Chronicle, has advanced a broader claim in an online video, suggesting that U.S. President Donald Trump was trying to “topple Modi” through the FCRA with the Church’s support.
“I watched this crazy video. I don’t think there is an ounce of truth in his accusations that the Roman Catholic Church has an agenda to dethrone Mr. Modi or his government,” Cyril Fernandes, president of the Catholic Association of Goa, told EWTN News.
“The CJP [protest] too has nothing to do with the FCRA demands. The whole interview appears stage-managed to change the narrative for which the central government machinery is famous,” Fernandes said.
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