Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to six political parties have written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticising the “selective targeting” of NGOs “critical” of government policies.

The letter written on December 16 by nine MPs flayed the cancellation of registration under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) of these NGOS, and questioned why “the government does not investigate a single RSS-affiliated NGO, who collect huge amounts of money and then used it to further a hate-filled agenda.”

Signed by Sitaram Yechury and K Karunakaran of the CPI (M), D. Raja of the CPI, Supriya Sule and Praful Patel of the Nationalist Congress Party, Neeraj Shekhar of the Samajwadi Party, P.C. Gupta of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Ahmed Patel and Renuka Choudhary of the Congress, the letter pointed out that the licences had been earlier renewed “showing that in the normal course these NGOs had fulfilled the required for registration.”

“The decision to cancel the registration is, therefore, a decision motivated by the politics of vendetta, victimisation and an effort to bully them into silence,” the MPs said.

Terming the move as “anti-democratic”, the MPs urged the Prime Minister to “immediately” restore the licences of these NGOs, which include Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace run by activist Teesta Setalvad, ANHAD run by Shabnam Hashmi, Lawyers Collective founded by senior lawyers Indira Jaising and Anand Grover, Greenpeace India, Navsarjan Trust of Dalit rights activist Martin Macwan and the Rural Development Research Centre, Ahmedabad, among others.

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