The licence of Missionaries of Charity (MoC) for receiving foreign funds was not renewed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) citing “adverse inputs”, an action taken on Christmas day that attracted criticism from various quarters though the organisation sought to play it down.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, CPI(M) West Bengal Secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and Trinamool Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien were among those found fault with the Centre’s action, alleging that the Narendra Modi government has frozen the MoC’s accounts.
However, the MoC issued a statement in the evening clarifying that its FCRA registration has neither been suspended nor cancelled and that there was no freeze on its accounts. “We have been informed that our FCRA renewal application has not been approved. Therefore, as a measure to ensure there is no lapse, we have asked our centres not to operate any of the FC accounts until the matter is resolved,” it said.