“What Bhagwan Krishna Can Teach the Government About Facing the FCRA 2026 Battle”, Goa Chronicle, 09 Aug 2026.
“I attended a lesson on Bhagwan Krishna’s message to Arjuna by Chanchalpati Das, Vice President of ISKCON Bengaluru and Founder of The Akshaya Patra Foundation. This was during the launch of the Hare Krishna Centre in Goa. The Bhagavad Gita’s teachings lingered with me long after the session. The lessons were a reminder of the timeless wisdom that can be applied to modern challenges. They got me thinking about how the timeless wisdom of Bhagwan Krishna could be adapted to the political circumstances India faces today, particularly the opposition to the FCRA 2026 Amendments. The circumstances may be vastly different from the battlefield of Kurukshetra, but the questions of duty, conviction, doubt, fear, responsibility and leadership remain remarkably relevant. It made me wonder: how could Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah apply some of those lessons in dealing with the opposition to FCRA 2026 without losing sight of what they believe is India’s larger national interest?
FCRA 2026: The Lesson of Krishna and Arjuna
There is an important lesson from the Mahabharata that the Indian government should consider as it faces growing opposition to the FCRA 2026 Amendments. It is not a lesson about defeating an opponent. It is a lesson about dealing with opposition when the stakes are high, emotions are running deep and the consequences of a decision extend far beyond the immediate political battle. Bhagwan Krishna did not prepare Arjuna for Kurukshetra by telling him that everyone who questioned the war was his enemy. He did something far more difficult. He listened to Arjuna’s doubts, understood his fears, challenged his assumptions and then gave him a larger understanding of duty before asking him to act.
That distinction is important today because the debate over the FCRA 2026 Amendments is rapidly becoming something larger than a debate about foreign contributions, regulation, transparency and national interest. It is increasingly being presented by some political and religious voices as a question of whether India is targeting Christians. That is precisely where the government needs to be careful. It must not allow a legitimate debate about the regulation of foreign funding to become a battle between the Indian state and the Christian community. At the same time, it must not allow legitimate national-security and financial-transparency concerns to be dismissed simply because some organisations or political parties raise objections in the name of religious freedom……………………………”
Read the full article at Goa Chronicle.
