- Saturday, April 27, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
UK PEERS in the House of Lords on Thursday (6) slammed India for not renewing funding licences of more than 6,000 organisations, including the Missionaries of Charity which was founded by Catholic nun Mother Teresa in the 1950s. They also called for the UK leadership to engage with India to reverse the move.
The debate started from an oral question which was posed by Lord Harris of Pentregarth who wanted to know about the representations that London was making to New Delhi about “blocking of overseas funds for the Missionaries of Charity and other NGOs”, the Times of India daily reported.
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The peers then lined up to ask what Britain was doing to seek to have the funds unblocked.
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Lord Foulkes of Cumnock said the UK should get multilateral groups, such as the Commonwealth secretariat, involved in the matter because “sometimes multilateral organisations can be better than getting a lecture from the UK”, the Indian daily added.
Lord Alton of Liverpool cautioned against unhealthy consequences for India’s vulnerable sections if the “iniquitous decision” was not changed.
Pentregarth said, “The work of Mother Teresa and the charity she founded, the Missionaries of Charity, is renowned throughout the world. What possible reason could the Indian government have for wanting to hinder and block their work.”
“The rumour is it is continuing pressure from Hindu nationalism because people might come into contact with Christianity and eventually convert to it. We need to know from the Indian government in writing what is their reason so we can examine the validity of their reasoning,” he added.
Lord Bruce of Bennachie said India’s indigenous and government organisations do not reach many of the poorest people and asked the Boris Johnson government to ask New Delhi to “explain how these people will be reached if the agencies serving them are withdrawn”.
Nearly 6,000 organisations lost their FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) licences on the New Year Day, either because they failed to renew them or their applications were rejected. On Christmas Day last year, the Indian home ministry refused to renew the FCRA registration of the Missionaries of Charity.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the UK’s minister of state for South Asia, said London was raising these issues in a constructive manner with the Indian high commission in the UK capital as well as the Indian government directly. He added that he sought more information on the matter so that he could analyse the reasons for revocation of the licences so that they could make a “much more qualified representation”.
The Indian high commission refused to remark on the matter saying in a statement that it would not “like to comment on a discussion between Hon’ble Members of Parliament of the UK”.
The statement said, “It appears to need reiteration that this is a matter of routine processing by India’s ministry of home affairs — of renewal applications for FCRA approval submitted by thousands of India-based entities, including the Missionaries of Charity. An examination of facts would make it clear that no single community, religion or source of funding has been particularly ‘targeted’ or any accounts frozen by the Government of India. All these applications for renewal of FCRA licences have been processed as per well-established procedure.”
