“We will extend all help and support required to Missionaries of Charity sisters and brothers in running their centres to serve humanity,” said United Interfaith Foundation-India general secretary Satnam Singh Ahluwalia. He told TOI people of Kolkata could not forget Mother Teresa’s contribution to society. “She gave up all worldly goods, slept on the floor, led a simple life and served humanity. She helped the poorest of the poor. We will stand by her organization at this time of need,” he said.
Ahluwalia, also the founder of IHA Foundation that helped people with food through the pandemic and disasters prior to that, said no inmate of the MoC would go hungry. “Be it requirement for ration or meals or any other assistance, we will ensure that the Missionaries of Charity gets it,” he added.
Though Missionaries of Charity superior general in a statement issued on Monday said its bank accounts had not been frozen, there was an acknowledgement the FCRA renewal application had not been approved, and hence, the centres had been asked not to use the FC accounts. MoC, which has chapters worldwide, gets volunteers and donations from everywhere. Though the arrival of volunteers has stopped in to the pandemic, philanthropists and the common man continue to contribute to the cause.
“Funds for all the work that MoC does for the poorest of the poor comes from generous individuals across the world. This curtailment will be a harsh blow to their efforts to reach out to people in distress. This will be debilitating,” said Catholic Association of Bengal president Angelina Jasnani, urging the Union home ministry to find a way to ensure the poor did not suffer and at the same time all the norms of the FCRA were met. “If Missionaries of Charity is unable to use the FC account, all its work will come to a halt and the poor will again find themselves exploited,” Jasnani said.
On allegations on religious conversion being cited in certain quarters for the rejection of FCRA renewal application, Sunita Kumar, a long-time associate of Mother Teresa, said she had never seen Christianity being thrust upon anyone in her 45 years association with MoC. “There have been allegations in the past, including those by British American journalist Christopher Hitchens, who called Mother a fundamentalist. I was shocked and angry to read the allegations because none of it was true. Mother Teresa wasn’t perturbed. ‘We will pray for him’, is all that Mother said,” recounted Kumar.
