Love Mother Teresa But Don’t Hate The RSS

Mother Teresa helped all, despite any God they sought solace in

Let me state my bias up front: I’ve produced a hagio-documentary on Mother Teresa (MT).

Having said that, I think we are missing the wood for the trees. MT was the founder of Missionaries of Charity (MoC), an order under the Roman Catholic Church. Each nun is a “bride of Jesus” as per the secret constitution of the MoC (which I’ve studied at length) and “Our ideal is no one but Jesus,” is a recorded MT quote.

Given the above, I wonder why the controversy? Her strength to do the yeoman work she did, came from her faith in Jesus. The issue is with the nuance of Mohan Bhagwat’s statement and I think he is totally wrong, but absolutely within his right to articulate thoughts. He casts aspersions on MTs motivation for the service she rendered. - I don’t think he questions what she did.

If no one else came to help the destitute and the dying and MT and her band of sisters did when nearing their end, would you expect them fetch priests from the nearby Kalighat temple or the Imam of Nakhoda Masjid?

If this impinges on her nobility, so be it. I, for one, don’t think it does. She took money from whomsoever was willing to donate and some of those were dodgy or dubious or both. But she didn’t use those funds for junkets or comfort but in serving the poorest of the poor. Switching tracks, the issue of the RSS doing any public service or social work has been raised. While that’s a separate discussion, and I’m no fan of theirs, the answer is a resounding yes.

In large scale human tragedies such as Bhopal, the tsunami or earthquakes in India, the “knickers” as they are pejoratively called, have been at the forefront of rescue and rehabilitation efforts, mostly unsung. I think the English press fears their secular credentials - which they carry on their sleeve – will be questioned should they find anything remotely praiseworthy with the RSS.

Lastly, no icon, however revered, is above discussion - Gandhi for his sexual experiments, Ramakrishna for allegedly being homosexual, Nehru for “cavorting” with Edwina Mountbatten and so on and so forth. I wonder why we are so scared of a different narrative! I’ve had the privilege of meeting MT several times starting from when I was just 9 or 10 - she was an amazing human being with the rarest of rare charisma.

I have a small medallion of Mother Mary she gave me, which I wear on a chain around my neck - does it make me a Christian or less a Hindu or Buddhist or Sikh or whichever God it is that I find solace in?

Manoj Mohanka is a businessman but more interested in affairs of state rather than the state of affairs. He follows politics and religion closely and runs a trust to educate Muslim girls from poor families.