New Delhi: Congress MP and general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal has written a letter to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, alleging that the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment (FCRA) Bill, 2026 is not engaging in meaningful consultation with stakeholders and expressed his concern that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government could try to pass the Bill hastily in the winter session.

“It has, however, been learnt that no meaningful consultation with stakeholders is taking place, and that there is an intention to have the Bill passed hastily in the forthcoming Winter Session. If this is so, it would defeat the very purpose for which the House referred the Bill to the Committee, and reduce an important parliamentary process to a mere formality,” Venugopal said in his letter to Birla on Thursday (October 1).

Venugopal requested Birla to ensure that the JPC invites written memoranda through public notice and hears oral evidence from all affected stakeholders.

He added that the JPC should be given adequate time for this exercise, including an extension of its reporting deadline if required, rather than being bound to an accelerated timeline.

“Members (should) have full opportunity for clause-by-clause deliberation, and the Bill is not taken up in the House until the Committee has completed a genuine and comprehensive examination,” said Venugopal in his letter.

On August 4, despite protests from the opposition demanding its withdrawal, the FCRA Bill 2026 was sent to the JPC by a voice vote. The resolution to send the bill to the JPC was moved by MoS Home Nityanand Rai as Union home minister Amit Shah remained absent in the Lok Sabha.

This is the second time the government has had to defer bringing the bill to the House. While the bill was first brought to the Lok Sabha in the Budget session, it was deferred on April 1 ahead of the Kerala assembly elections facing pushback from the opposition as well as Christian leaders in the poll-bound state.

The FCRA (Amendment) Bill, 2026 proposes the creation of a “designated authority” to take provisional or permanent control of assets of NGOs whose FCRA licences are cancelled, surrendered or lapsed. This includes powers to manage and dispose of such assets. It also introduces timelines for utilisation of funds, regulating assets during suspension, rationalising penalties and requiring prior approval of the central government for initiating investigations.

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