In a rather shocking move by the Indian government, the Mother Teresa Charity has been banned from receiving any funding from foreign entities. This comes just days after faced an official police investigation into “hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindus”. This comes amid a sense of increasing intolerance towards Christians in India.
The charity, which operates numerous shelters across the country was started by Mother Teresa in 1950. It was denied a license to accept funds from foreign sources, thereby cutting off a vital source of aid, with this decision being made on Christmas day. The main goal of this charity is to help the poor and the downtrodden, and is led by several dedicated nuns. The home ministry, who took this decision, declared that it had come across “adverse inputs” when taking the application into consideration.
The rejection of the application occurred less than 14 days after Hindu hardliners accused the charity of carrying out “forced conversions” in Vododara, in the state of Gujarat. They claim that in a Home for Girls that the charity runs, young girls were being forced to convert from Hinduism to Christianity.
The accusations that followed were that poor young Hindu women were being “lured” into becoming Christian by being forced to read Christian texts, and take part in Christian prayer sessions. A claim that the charity vehemently denies. According to a report filed to the police, they allege that “the institution has been involved in activities to hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindus intentionally and with bitterness.” The report went on to state that “the girls in the Home for Girls are being made to adopt Christianity by being made to wear a cross and that a Bible is placed on the table of a storeroom that is used by them, as a means of compelling them to read the holy book… It is an attempted crime to force religious conversion upon the girls.”
“We have not converted anyone or even forced anyone to marry into the Christian faith,” a spokesperson for the Missionaries for Charity stated, rejecting the allegations as groundless.
This accusation comes amid a surge in anti-Christian violence and intolerance that has been infecting India, with right-wing Hindu Nationalist groups accusing Christians of forcibly converting Hindus against their will or by using bribes. As anti-Christian has grown, several Christian pastors have been attacked and church services riotously disrupted. Moreover, over Christmas, there were several attacks that were carried out against the Christian community, including the vandalism of a statue of Jesus Christ. The BJP government refusal to grant this license has been labelled by many as indicative of a growing level of hostility towards Christian organizations that function in India.
Additionally, the government has held a tight rein on NGOs from receiving funding from abroad, specifically those that have been critical of the government. For example, Amnesty International and Green Peace are among those that have had their accounts frozen by this government.
On Monday, the Missionaries of Charity issued a statement confirming the denial of their renewal application, and that they would not operate foreign funding accounts “until this issue is resolved.”
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