Teresa canonisation sparks Mother of all junkets for VIPs

NEW DELHI: Mother Teresa will be anointed a saint on Sunday and India’s politicians are in a mad dash to travel to the Vatican to witness the historic event, most

Published on: Sep 1, 2016, 08:08:38 IST

By Dhrubo Jyoti

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NEW DELHI: Mother Teresa will be anointed a saint on Sunday and India’s politicians are in a mad dash to travel to the Vatican to witness the historic event, most of them possibly at public expense.

At least a central minister, two chief ministers, a number of politicians and civil servants will travel to the Holy See to witness the canonisation of Mother Teresa.

The list of visitors include leaders from West Bengal, Delhi, invitees from Mother Teresa’s organisation, Missionaries of Charity, as well as leaders from states with big Christian populations such as Kerala or Goa.

Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj will lead the official Indian delegation, whose full composition is unknown. But the decision has already angered Sangh Parivar, which views the Albania-born Mother Teresa as a missionary who came to India to convert Hindus.

But the biggest share of invites appears to have gone to Mother Teresa’s adopted home state, West Bengal, as well as Kerala.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, her party leaders Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O’Brien, state chief secretary Basudeb Bandyopadhyay are among those going. Sister Mary Prema, superior general of the Missionaries of Charity will accompany Banerjee. Five top nuns are also going to the Vatican. Senior Roman Catholic Diocese of Kolkata sources told HT that the Bengal politicians are going as guests of the Missionaries of Charity, which refused comment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dhrubo Jyoti
Dhrubo Jyoti is Deputy Executive Editor at Hindustan Times, where they help oversee the newspaper’s daily news and opinion coverage. They are part of the leadership team of the newspaper and their daily responsibilities include news selection, commissioning and editing, apart from planning and executing special projects. Apart from this, they write on national affairs at the intersection of caste and sexuality, with a focus on elections, politics and the lifeworlds of the caste marginalised. Formally trained in physics from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and Bose Institute, Kolkata, they made a switch to studying journalism from the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai. Over the past decade at Hindustan Times, they have worked at the National Desk, Page 1 team, Integrated Copy Desk and Special Stories Team, before running the opinion page as views editor for two years, and then moving back as Senior Editor of News Operations. In the past 12 years, they have reported on numerous national and state elections, specialising on caste-informed coverage of major moments in India’s history, and focussing on leading investigations into government accountability and social inequities. Their narrative non-fiction work aims to put Dalit voices at the core of India’s LGBTQIA+ movements.Read More