Is India's government purposely curbing liberal think tanks?

The Center for Policy Research is one of India's premier public policy think tanks. However, the Center, also known as the CPR, has been unable to pay salaries for six months after India's government suspended the think tank's foreign funding license in February and later canceled its tax exemption status and froze its bank accounts. 

The CPR is challenging the government's moves in a New Delhi court. It said that at least 80 scientists and other employees have left and that its research activities have ground to a halt. 

The think tank's lawyer, Arvind Datar, told the court during his last appearance that the organization was paying the price for "dissent." 

"You may not like any dissent in the country … it is extremely sad if an Indian think tank is going to be closed … one bit of dissent and it is done."

Set up in 1973, the CPR describes itself as a "non-partisan, independent institution" conducting research that "contributes to a more robust public discourse about the issues that impact life in India."

The current president and chief executive of CPR is Yamini Aiyar, the daughter of senior opposition party leader and former federal minister Mani Shankar Aiyar. 

And the CPR is not the only think tank that is under pressure. In September 2022, Indian tax authorities raided Oxfam India, the Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation (IPSMF), along with the CPR.

On Tuesday, Indian authorities raided the homes of several journalists and commentators connected with NewsClick, an independent, progressive news website, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which ostensibly targets "terrorist organizations" but which has been criticized for being used to silence the press.  

Journalists said that their laptops and telephones were confiscated. Delhi police said a fresh case "related to terror links" had been registered against the news website. NewsClick was already under investigation for allegedly receiving illegal funding from China, something it denies. 

Cutting off foreign funding  

Many think tanks in India depend on foreign funding. India's Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) regulates the receipt and use of foreign funding by non-profits in India. Successive governments have been accused of misusing the law to pressure civil society organizations. 

Data shows incidences of FCRA suspension have grown over the last decade. Between 2019 and 2021 the FCRA certificates of as many as 1,811 organizations were canceled. 

These include international NGOs like Oxfam, Greenpeace and Amnesty International, besides Indian civil rights organizations like Lawyers Collective, Sabrang Trust and Anhad. 

Chairman of the board of Amnesty International in India, Aakar Patel, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist government is using the FCRA to suppress non-profits and civil society organizations. 

"You could argue that it has sharpened since 2014. And the FCRA has been weaponized in a way that it hasn't been before," he told DW. 

"This is happening because of a lack of tolerance. This government under the Bharatiya Janata Party does not believe in giving civil society free voice. It fundamentally opposes the growth of civil society," he added.  

Government-friendly think tanks in favor           

However, other prominent think tanks have not come under government pressure. The Observer Research Foundation (ORF), a think-tank founded in 1990, is funded by one of India's richest industrial houses, Reliance. It is also close to India's foreign policy apparatus. 

Since 2016, ORF has been hosting the Raisina Dialogue, which has now become one of the world's premier events in the foreign policy and strategic affairs space.

The event is jointly hosted by ORF and India's Ministry of External Affairs, which also shares the event's funding. India's Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar's son, Dhruva Jaishankar, heads the ORF's US chapter, ORF America. 

Independent journalist Jyoti Malhotra told DW that the Modi government wants "to control the narrative" and it seeks to do that "by controlling the media, think tanks and online space." 

"If think tanks are funded by the government, they seem to be much more beholden and will echo the government's message. If you are less dependent on the government, then you are able to speak out and publish more," she said.

Think tanks a venue for Hindu nationalism 

Another think tank, the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), is affiliated with the far-right, Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Modi is a member of both the RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP.

Ajit Doval, Modi's national security advisor since 2014, was the VIF's founding director.

Doval's son Shaurya Doval is among the founder members of another RSS-linked think tank, the India Foundation. The organization's other founder, as well as its president, is RSS leader Ram Madhav. 

Alok Bansal, a director at the India Foundation, told DW that although some of the foundation's members are linked to the RSS and Bharatiya Janata Party, the foundation itself is an independent organization.

"Many of the positions we take are similar to the positions taken by the government of the day, because we are an organization that looks at these issues from a nationalistic perspective. But on many issues, our views may or may not be the same as the government," he said, but did not provide any examples where this was the case. 

Mainstream media gives a lot of space to analysts associated with government-friendly think tanks, which provide their commentary with a wide platform. 

Journalist Urvashi Sarkar has been researching the role of think tanks in India. She told DW that the visibility of government-friendly think tanks has definitely gone up. 

"We don't know whether they are influencing public policy but they are definitely influencing public opinion," she said. 

The people at the helms of these organizations refute this criticism. 

"The India Foundation has been around for 14 years, VIF for longer than that, and ORF even longer," the India Foundation's Alok Bansal said. "If there is a perception that ORF is the government's favorite then it has been every government's favorite. It has the wherewithal and intellectual bandwidth to deliver," he said.

Edited by: Wesley Rahn