Renewal of foreign funding licence of Zakir Naik’s NGO stopped

The Union home ministry will scrap the renewal of the foreign funding licence of TV evangelist Zakir Naik’s NGO, Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), till the time the investigation against it ends, sources said.

The decision to take strict action against those responsible for renewing the licence was taken by home minister Rajnath Singh in consultation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sources added.

“The ministry will rescind its order of renewal of foreign funding licence of the IRF,” said a ministry source.

In an embarrassing slip-up, the ministry renewed IRF’s foreign funding licence in the third week of August, despite initiating an inquiry against it.

“We will challenge it in court. We assume that the renewal was done following all norms,” said Aarif Malik, IRF spokesperson. He added that if anything was wrong with the IRF, the ministry could have simply refused to renew the licence. “What logic will they give now to revoke it,” asked Malik.

The ministry brass got to know about the slip-up only when the IRF spokesperson revealed it in a media interview on Thursday.

To receive donation from abroad, all NGOs need to get registered with the home ministry’s foreigners division under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), the law that governs foreign funding.

The ministry suspended two under-secretaries, one section officer and removed a data entry operator following the slip-up. A formal inquiry has been initiated to look into circumstance in which the licence was renewed.

“The formal process of Dwivedi’s suspension was initiated on Thursday only after the home minister cleared it in consultation with the PM ,” said a ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity. An overhaul of the foreigners division is also on cards.