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Missionaries of Charity’s troubles continue
Missionaries of Charity was in the news earlier this month when a case was filed against its Children Home for Girls in Gujarat’s Vadodara for alleged forceful conversions to Christianity.
NEW DELHI: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said the Centre has frozen bank accounts of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity even as the latter claimed the organisation asked the State Bank of India to freeze them.
The Centre earlier on December 25 decided against renewing the organisation’s license under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. Banerjee expressed shock over the move. “Shocked to hear that on Christmas, Union Ministry froze all bank accounts of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity! Their 22,000 patients & employees have been left without food & medicines,” she tweeted.
The Centre said the licence was not renewed because of “adverse inputs”.
The charitable organisation was earlier in the news this month when a case was filed against its Children Home for Girls in Gujarat’s Vadodara for alleged forceful conversions to Christianity. It was also alleged that marriages of some at the home belonging to other religious communities were conducted as per Christian rituals. A nun working at the home rejected the allegations and said children only followed the prayers that the nuns recited.
The Centre earlier in July 2018 directed state governments to inspect all childcare homes the charitable organisation runs. This came after the Jharkhand Police arrested a nun and an employee of a Ranchi-based organisation run by the Missionaries of Charity on charges of selling a baby allegedly for ₹1.2 lakh. The Centre also directed the states to ensure that all child care institutions were registered and linked to the country’s apex adoption body within a month.
