India blocks foreign funding to Mother Theresa charity

The Indian government on Monday “refused” to renew a permission for Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity (MoC) to be able to secure foreign funds, cutting off a key source the charity has depended on to run its programs for the impoverished.   

 Nobel-laureate Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun who died in 1997, founded the MoC in 1950. The charity has more than 3,000 nuns worldwide who run hospices, community kitchens, schools, leper colonies and homes for abandoned children.   

 The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused permission to the charity under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) on Saturday after it received some “adverse inputs”, a government statement said.   

 “While considering the MoC’s renewal application, some adverse inputs were noticed,” the Home Ministry said, without providing details. The move comes as hardline Hindu outfits affiliated to Modi’s party have accused the MoC of leading religious conversion programmes under the guise of charity by offering poor Hindus and tribal communities food, medicine, money, free education and shelter. MoC has rejected these allegations.   

 Vicar General Dominic Gomes of the Archdiocese of Calcutta said the freeze of the accounts was “a cruel Christmas gift to the poorest of the poor”.   

 The row comes days after hardline Hindu vigilante groups disrupted Christmas church services in parts of India, including in some states ruled by Modi’s party ahead of local elections in the coming months.   

Since Modi came to power in 2014, right-wing Hindu groups have consolidated their position across states and launched attacks on minorities, claiming they are trying to prevent religious conversions.   
NEW DELHI REUTERS 
Dec 27