Mother Teresa's charity's FCRA licence restored

Tribune News Service

Advertisement

New Delhi, January 8

The FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) licence for Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity (MoC) was restored on January 7, 13 days after the Home Ministry had on the Christmas day refused a renewal request by the Kolkata-based organisation.

Following the Home Ministry refusal citing “adverse inputs”, the MoC was unable to receive foreign contributions, a major source of funding for the organisation which runs orphanages and shelters across the country for the poor, sick, and the homeless.

Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien, who was among the several opposition leaders to condemn the government over the cancellation of the FCRA licence of MoC, tweeted on Saturday morning, “The FCRA registration for Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity is back. The ‘adverse  inputs’ harassed so many and then disappeared in two weeks. The POWER OF LOVE is stronger than the power of 56 inch.”

Screenshot tweeted by O’Brien of the related page of the Home Ministry website showed Missionaries of Charity located at AJC Bose Road in Kolkata at serial number 688 in the list of FCRA registered organisations.

The Home Ministry is yet to give an official statement on what prompted it to restore the MoC’s FCRA licence.

Mother Teresa, canonized by the Vatican, has many admirers in the West and refusal to renew the FCRA licence of her charity infuriated them. In the UK, the issue was raised in the House of Lords.