NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday placed the Ford Foundation , one of the world’s most high-profile private funding agencies, on the ‘prior permission’ list. This means that all its funds coming into India will first have to be scrutinised and cleared by the home ministry.An order issued by the home ministry cited “national interest and security” as the reason for placing the USbased Foundation on a watch list. The order signed by Home Ministry Undersecretary Anand Joshi directed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to instruct all banks to ensure that “any fund flow from Ford Foundation” is referred to the ministry and allowed only after its clearance. Home ministry spokesperson KS Dhatwalia confirmed the development.Coming on the heels of the clampdown on Greenpeace , this will strengthen the perception of social activists that the NDA government wants to adopt a hard line toward NGOs. The Foundation was allegedly funding NGOs that were not registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act or FCRA.“Among the violations noticed, it was found that the Ford Foundation had been involved in funding non-FCRA registered entities which amounts to serious violation of the FCRA 2010 law,” the home ministry spokesperson said. The Ford Foundation is on the watch list based on inputs received from security agencies, he said. “This does not prevent Ford Foundation from contributing money to FCRA-registered associations.Our main concern is Ford Foundation contributing money to non-FCRA registered associations. So each and every contribution will have to be intimated to the home ministry and if the contribution is valid and in order for a FCRA-registered organisation, it will be immediately cleared,” the home ministry spokesperson told ET.Ford Foundation, in a written response to ET, said it was only aware of a review in view of the home ministry’s ongoing investigations. “In light of recent communication from the ministry of finance, our nodal ministry in the government of India, the Ford Foundation has officially learned that the ministry of home affairs is reviewing information related to their ongoing investigation of Sabrang Communications and Publishing Pvt. Ltd,” a spokesperson said. ET had reported on April 18 that the government was examining some of Ford Foundation’s activities.UNDER I-B SCANNERThe funding agency had been under Intelligence Bureau (IB) scrutiny for the past one year and grants worth $5 million given by it had been blocked by the Indian government amid suspicion that it was funding organisations and NGOs that were working against the perceived national interest.The Gujarat government had also complained to the home ministry against the Foundation on the grounds that it was interfering with the judicial system of the country and working against communal harmony. This was part of the state’s complaint against Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, activists who have been seeking justice for the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots. The organisations that the couple run — Sabrang Trust and Sabrang Communications have received payments from the agency as grants and consultation fees. Some officials said the Ford Foundation had not been filing income-tax (I-T) returns.“The agency is not registered as either a NGO under the Societies Act or under the Companies Act or even the Trusts Act. It only had permission of RBI to run a branch office in India, which was routing funds amounting to Rs 100 crore every year in violation of I-T laws,” an official belonging to the security establishment told ET. Civil right activists Nikhil Dey and Harsh Mander told ET that they failed to understand government’s concerns with regard to agencies such as the Ford Foundation and Greenpeace. “In these days of neo-liberal globalisation, the Prime Minister goes all over the world looking for funding -- FDI (foreign direct investment) and from corporates. The crackdown against NGOs through funds is actually a desire of the government to push for certain policies,” Dey said.According to him, the government action against funding agencies did not reflect due process of law. “I am surprised and also puzzled that the government has acted against the Ford Foundation, which is the biggest ever international funding agency. It seems that by taking action against the big ones, the government is putting the fear of God in the other NGOs and funding agencies,” Dey said.However, he added that the tendency to curb dissent by acting against NGOs was not peculiar to the BJP-led government. “Even the Manmohan Singh government had tried to suppress the NGO sector, especially those protesting against nuclear plants and GM crops. But this government has taken it to extremes,” Dey said.Mander felt that action against the Foundation was mainly because of its funding of Teesta Setalvad’s work. He said that the suspicion of “foreign funding, that it was used to foment dissent, belonged to an earlier era when Indira Gandhi feared the CIA hand in everything.”According to him, the time had come to evolve a transparent, ethical and accountable system of funding – whether from abroad or domestic.