Ahead of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to India, a US lawmaker urged him to raise concerns over proposed changes to India’s Foreign Contribution Regulatory Act (FCRA).
Rubio is scheduled to hold extensive discussions with Foreign Affairs Secretary S. Jaishankar on Sunday, and will attend the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday next week.
US Congressman Chris Smith said that the amendments, if implemented, would disproportionately affect Christian charities and churches. In an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, Smith said passage of the new restrictive amendments “could do lasting damage to the relationship between our two countries.”
The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 was introduced in the House of Representatives (Lok Sabha) in March 2026, and seeks to amend the existing 2010 law. It makes provisions on how Indian individuals, companies and associations can access and use foreign contributions.
In his argument, Smith particularly expressed concern about provisions that allow the Indian government to seize foreign contributions and assets arising from them, giving it certain authority if the registration of the recipient person or entity expires.
“If the bill is adopted, it would significantly expand the ability of Indian State to seize the property and assets of groups that receive foreign funding — the vast majority of which are churches and Christian charities, such as hospitals and schools,” said Smith, a Republican who has represented the 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1981. “In fact, the entire property of churches and parishes could soon be at risk of being seized by Indian State.”
Although he acknowledged India’s democratic status and its right to see itself as a “Hindu cultural superpower,” Smith claimed that “it is difficult to see how the relationship could develop if the Government of India passed legislation aimed at expropriating the property of Indian Christians.”
India refuses to grant visas to USCIRF
India and the United States have long disagreed on issues related to religious freedom. India has refused to grant visas to delegations from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), and has repudiated the agency’s reports on religious freedom in India.
“For several years now, the USCIRF has continued to present a distorted and selective picture of India, relying on questionable sources and ideological narratives rather than objective facts. Such repeated misrepresentations only serve to undermine the credibility of the commission itself,” the Indian Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued in March this year after the release of the commission’s 2025 report.
US politicians and government agencies have continued to raise issues related to religious freedom in India. Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the United States in 2023, Rep. Ilhan Omar introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives condemning “human rights violations and violations of international religious freedom in India, including those targeting Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Adivasis and other religious and cultural minorities.”
The resolution was not put to a vote before the House of Representatives. US officials who were then serving in the administration of then-President Biden also said that they would raise religious freedom issues with India during Prime Minister Modi’s visit.
