Foreign Funds Licence For Mother Teresa’s Charity Restored

The FCRA licence for Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity was restored Saturday, according to an entry in the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act website, two weeks after the Home Ministry cited “adverse inputs” to refuse a renewal request by the Kolkata-based organisation.

The loss of the license – needed to receive and use charitable contributions from abroad – left the group, which operates orphanages and shelters for the poor, sick, and destitute in India, unable to access foreign funds stored in over 250 accounts.

No statement has been made by the government so far.

Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien, who was one of several opposition leaders to slam the government over its cancelling of the FCRA licence, this morning tweeted “the power of love is stronger than the power of 56 inch” – an indirect swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“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,” he wrote.

The Missionaries of Charity’s FCRA licence was revoked on Christmas Day in a move that was widely condemned by many, including Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The Home Ministry said it had not received a request to review its decision.

The Ministry did not give details but this was after a police complaint in Gujarat against the Director of a children’s home, run by the Missionaries of Charity, for allegedly attempting to convert inmates.

The charity confirmed the rejection of their renewal request and said, “we have asked our centres not to operate any of the FC (foreign contributions) accounts until the matter is resolved”.

Work at the organisation had continued despite the slashing of available funds.

Last week an official from the Missionaries of Charity told news agency PTI: “In India, we have been sustaining all these years with the love and support of people in this country. So we will continue to serve the poor, destitute, ailing, aged with the same gusto in the same way.”

The organisation received financial help, however, from the Odisha government. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s office said ₹ 78.76 lakh would be given to 13 of the charity’s institutions in the state.

Refusing FCRA clearance has been listed by critics of the government as its way of suppressing organisations whose work or officials are not considered supportive enough of the government.

Also last week it emerged that more than 12,000 NGOs and charitable organisations in India, including the Missionaries of Charity, had lost their FCRA licences after it expired.

The list of organisations now without FCRA licences includes Oxfam India, which has said that ongoing humanitarian work in 16 states across India will be severely affected.