Churches in northeast oppose FCRA
The proposed Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 has triggered strong opposition from church organisations in Northeast India, particularly in Mizoram, with religious bodies raising concerns over provisions relating to foreign-funded assets and the regulation of organisations receiving overseas contributions
Guwahati: While the central government is preparing to table the FCRA amendment bill in the ongoing session of Parliament, the Church bodies of Northeast are vehemently opposing it. Why is a question which needs to be answered by the Churches which get huge foreign funding every year. But the allegations against it are equally huge; most of the funds received by the churches through foreign donations are being used for conversion of poor Hindu families to Christianity which includes tribals, backward classes and adivasis in the Northeast.
Mizoram’s Chief Minister Lalduhoma travelled to New Delhi on August 6 to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The purpose of his visit was to hand submit the official recommendations and share local worries about the proposed Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026.
The proposed FCRA amendment bill has nothing to do with any state government. But the Lalduhoma government is under tremendous pressure from the Church bodies of the state. It is a known fact that in the Christian majority Northeastern states like Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya the Church bodies are very strong and they can put huge pressure on the state government.
After the meeting with the union home minister CM Lalduhoma said that Amit Shah gave a firm assurance that the new rules would not apply to past actions by the receivers of the foreign funds. ” He’ll go through the rest of our points paragraph by paragraph before the bill tabled for discussion in the Parliament on the 12th of this month,” the Chief Minister explained.
Meanwhile, a group of church leaders from Mizoram also met with the Home Minister on 6th August. They handed over their own joint memorandum, raising objections to certain parts of the proposed law.
Rev Lalhmangaiha, who serves as General Secretary of the Council of Churches in Mizoram, explained their biggest worry. He said the bill, as they understand it, could let the government seize assets built using foreign funds—even if an organisation used that money legally and later gave up or lost its FCRA license. The church leaders asked the government to rethink these particular provisions. Their argument is simple: organizations that followed the rules and used foreign funds properly shouldn’t have to worry about losing what they built.
The Council of Churches in Mizoram which is an umbrella organisation of 9 major churches in the state organised a protest against the bill on August 11. According to the council 19 organisations in Mizoram have FCRA licence including few major Churches. Christian organisations account for 12 percent of the FCRA licence holders in the country, but they receive around 60 percent of the foreign funds regulated under the FCRA act.
Parliament is set to take up the bill for discussion starting August 12. So far, the central government hasn’t given a detailed public response to the specific concerns raised by Mizoram’s leadership and its church organizations.
