India refuses to renew foreign funding for charity; religious protests by Reuters

By Manoj Kumar and Rupam Jainen

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The Indian government on Monday “refused” to renew the essential permit for Mother Teresa’s Charity Missionaries (MoC) to obtain foreign funds, cutting off its key source for charity management. its programs for the poor.

The Nobel Laureate Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun who died in 1997, founded the MoC in 1950. The charity has more than 3,000 nuns around the world who run hospitals, community kitchens, schools, leper colonies and homes for abandoned children.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government denied permission for the Foreign Contributions Regulation (FCRA) charity on Saturday after receiving “some harmful revenue” in a government statement.

“Considering the MoC’s renewal request, some harmful entries were noticed,” the Interior Ministry said without giving details.

The ministry ruled that the first allegation by West Bengal Minister Mamata Banerjee that the charitable bank accounts were frozen.

The MoC later confirmed in a statement that its FCRA application had not been upgraded and asked its centers not to operate a foreign contribution account until the issue was resolved.

The strongest Hindu outfits affiliated with the Modi party have accused the MoC of leading religious conversion programs in the guise of charity, offering food, medicine, money, free education and shelter to Hindus and poor tribes. The MoC has dismissed these allegations.

Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee, where the MoC is headquartered, wrote in a tweet that he was surprised to hear at Christmas that the Union Ministry had frozen all MoC bank accounts.

“Their 22,000 patients and staff have been left without food and medicine. Although the law is crucial, humanitarian efforts must not be jeopardized,” said opposition leader Banerjee and sharp criticism of the Modi government.

The federal government said the MoC’s account froze the banks at the request of the charity itself.

The Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Calcutta, Dominic Gomes, said that freezing accounts is a “cruel Christmas present” for the poor.

The clash took place in the coming months when some of India’s toughest caretaker groups disrupted Christmas church services in India, including in some states ruled by the Modi party, ahead of local elections in the coming months.

MINORITY ATTACKS

Since Modi came to power in 2014, right-wing Hindu groups have strengthened their position among states and carried out attacks against minorities, saying they are trying to prevent religious conversion.

Christians and other critics say that Christians make up only 2.3% of India’s 1.370 billion people, while Hindus make up a vast majority. They reject the excuse given by some Hindu groups to prevent conversions as a reason for violence against Christians.

The Hindu newspaper reported on Monday that the Christmas celebrations were interrupted over the weekend and last week, including the vandalism of a life-size statue of Jesus Christ in Haryana Ambalan, a northern state ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Nationalist Party (BJP).

Activists burned a model of Santa Claus and shouted anti-Christmas slogans outside a church in Varanasi, in the parliamentary district of Modi and in the holiest city of Hinduism.

Elias Vaz, vice president of the All India Catholic Union, has condemned the latest developments.

“India’s strength lies in its diversity and the people who have done this at Christmas are truly anti-national,” Vaz said.

Contacted by phone, the federal and state governments declined to comment on the protests.

Several Indian states have passed or are considering laws against conversion that call into question the country’s right to freedom of belief.