Congressman Riley Moore sparked an international scandal earlier this week after harshly condemning India’s “Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill” on X as “a clear attack against Christians” since it would “permit government takeovers of churches and religious charities.” As explained by Indian media, however, the amendment isn’t aimed against any religious group or other foreign-funded entities like hospitals, schools, etc. The only purpose is to regulate their assets if their relevant licenses are lost.
The original “Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act” (FCRA) has been in force since 2011 without any complaints from the US. As regards the proposed amendments, Indian media also explained that “Among its key provisions is the creation of a government-appointed Designated Authority, which would be empowered to manage the assets and funds of organisations whose FCRA licences are cancelled, surrendered or not renewed.” There are also several other provisions as well.
These include “A minimum foreign funding utilisation threshold of Rs 10 lakh (~$10,000) over the previous two financial years for licence renewal; Mandatory disclosure of operational details, including physical addresses, websites and social media accounts; and a provision stating that if assets taken over include a place of worship, its religious character must be preserved.” It would therefore in some ways resemble the US’ “Foreign Agents Registration Act” but without the additional burdensome obligations.
The point above about preserving the religious character of any places of worship that might be taken over by the state confirms that there isn’t any discriminatory intent against any religion. Circling back to Moore, the congressman whose social media post sparked this scandal, he presents himself as a proud Christian and has advocated for associated causes since entering office in 2025. Given that he’s a freshman, it can’t be ruled out that his activism is being manipulated by others for anti-Indian purposes.
The unrest that beset the Northeast Indian state of Manipur in 2023 was spun by some Western media as a clash of civilizations. The reality was much more complicated as explained here at the time, namely that cross-border Christian militias and drug-smugglers were stirring trouble in this region of Balkan-like diversity, which some suspected was part of an American ploy to weaponize Christianity against India. In any case, the optics can easily mislead observers, which is what seems to have happened with Moore.
One can only speculate who dishonestly misportrayed India’s proposed amendments to its FCRA as anti-Christian to him, but the goal was clearly to inspire him into sparking the international scandal that he did, which comes at a sensitive time in Indo-US relations as they finalize their interim trade deal. Moreover, Trump 2.0 might now be reconsidering its pivot to Pakistan due to Islamabad’s reported double-dealing with China and Iran, but this scandal might make it hold off on pivoting back to India.
Reflecting on all that’s at stake, whoever manipulated Moore into publicly embarrassing himself by falsely posting that the bill that he harshly criticized on X is anti-Christian had anti-Indian intentions in mind, thus casting suspicion on Pakistan’s influence network in the US. This doesn’t mean that a Pakistani was directly involved in the sense of misleading him during talks or some other way, just that one of their “agents of influence” was probably responsible, but only Moore knows who that might be.
