By: The Wire Staff Published in: *The Wire* Date: May 23, 2026 Source: https://thewire.in/rights/rubios-visit-to-missionaries-of-charity-brings-modi-govts-fcra-into-spotlight *Note:* Please access the source to read the entire article In 2021, on Christmas, the Ministry of Home Affairs refused to renew Mother Teresa’s organisation's FCRA licence, citing unspecified "adverse inputs." The decision temporarily froze the charity's foreign funding accounts, cutting off vital resources for hundreds of shelter homes and clinics across the country.
*New Delhi:* The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s diplomatic itinerary to India includes a highly publicised visit to the Missionaries of Charity headquarters in Kolkata, which has thrust the stringent Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) back into the spotlight, drawing fresh international scrutiny toward the Modi government’s administrative framework governing foreign-funded religious and humanitarian organisations. Just days before Secretary Rubio’s arrival in India, US Representative Chris Smith, Chair of the House Global Human Rights Subcommittee, has published an op-ed in *The Washington Examiner* <https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415651> urging the State Department to raise specific concerns regarding proposed amendments to the FCRA. Smith warned that impending changes to the law could grant the Modi government sweeping powers to retroactively seize properties, schools and hospitals belonging to foreign-funded NGOs if their administrative licenses
