While law is paramount, humanitarian efforts must not be compromised, she says in a tweet
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Archdiocese of Calcutta on Monday expressed shock over the Centre’s decision to freeze all bank accounts of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in India.
Taking to social media, she stated that the decision had left about 22,000 patients and employees without food and medicines. The Trinamool Congress chairperson emphasised that humanitarian efforts must not be compromised.
Father Dominic Gomes, Vicar General, Archdiocese of Calcutta, said in a statement, “In freezing the bank accounts of Missionaries of Charity Sisters and Brothers congregations, Government agencies have given a cruel Christmas gift to the poorest of the poor.”
He pointed out that over 22, 000 direct dependents and beneficiaries at their centres across the country; Missionaries of Charity, Sisters and Brothers reached out to uplift thousands and were often the only friends of the leprosy-afflicted and social outcast no one would even venture nearby.
“We condemn the Government action against the MC and are appalled by the timing and lack of empathy to consider the humanitarian disaster this decision will cause,” the statement said.
Fr. Gomes noted that the development had overlooked the fact that the representatives of Missionaries of Charity in India gave up all worldly goods, slept on the floor and, and earned no money – giving whatever they have in service to the poorest in every corner of the earth, especially the poorest of Indians. “.. This latest attack on the Christian Community and their social outreach is even more a dastardly attack on the poorest of India’s poor, who the MC congregation serves,” the statement added.
There was no formal statement from the Missionaries of Charity on the development.
Leaders raise issue
Other leaders of West Bengal, including Communist Party of India ( Marxist) State secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra, also raised the issue, pointing out that the Centre had frozen all accounts of the institution, including cash in hand.
“Yesterday, Christmas Day the Union Ministry FROZE ALL BANK ACCOUNTS of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. The Govt has frozen all the accounts in India, including cash in hand. Their 22,000 patients, including employees, are left without food and medicines,” Dr. Mishra said in a tweet.
Mother Teresa set up the Missionaries of Charity, a Catholic religious congregation in 1950. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979. She died on September 5, 1997 and she was declared a saint by Pope Francis in September 2016.
Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/shocked-to-hear-about-freezing-of-missionaries-of-charity-bank-accounts-mamata/article38047626.ece
