Rush Hour: Centre sends FCRA bill to JPC, Justice Varma found guilty in unaccounted cash row & more

The Lok Sabha referred the 2026 Foreign Contribution Regulation Amendment Bill to a 31-member joint parliamentary committee for detailed examination. This followed protests by Opposition parties, which said that the bill grants “sweeping and disproportionate powers” to the executive without adequate constitutional safeguards.

A key provision of the amendment bill allows the Union government to take control of an organisation’s foreign funds and assets if its FCRA registration lapses or is cancelled.

Introduced in Parliament in March, the bill has also drawn criticism from churches and civil society groups, who said that the legislation will adversely affect religious minorities. Read on.

How India’s crackdown on NGO funds has crushed key grassroots services and ended livelihoods, reported Kunal Purohit

A Lok Sabha inquiry committee has found that “unexplained bundles of Rs 500” were recovered from the Delhi residence of former High Court judge Yashwant Varma in March 2025. In a report tabled in Parliament, the panel also said that Varma had given misleading explanations about the cash.

His responses were “evasive and unsatisfactory”, said the panel, constituted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on August 12, 2025. It also said that the cash was neither secured nor preserved and later disappeared, which remains “unexplained”. Read on.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of compromising India’s...

Read more