Mother Teresa conspired to Christianize India, says Indian MP

Mother Teresa conspired to Christianize India in the guise of helping the poor, said an Indian parliamentarian blaming her for separatist movements.

Member of Parliament Yogi Adityanath made his accusatory remarks during a Ram Katha program in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, June 18 and blamed the Roman Catholic nun who died almost two decades ago for the country's separatist movements in the Northeast.

"Incidents of Christianization had led to separatist movements in parts of North East, including Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland," said Adityanath, a member of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as reported by The Economic Times.

"You all are unaware of the situation in the North East. You should visit there to see the real situation," he added.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy supported his colleague's statements while adding that Adityanath's view was no way isolated.

"It is a view which has been reduced to books, there is a writer Christopher Hitchens, who has written a best seller book and if you go to Google you would get a lots of books about her," Swamy told ANI on Wednesday, June 22.

Hitchens wrote the book "The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice." The English journalist was one of Teresa's most outspoken critics who accused her that she was not a poor man's friend, rather, a friend of poverty.

Former vice chairman of the Minorities Commission, Abraham Mathai, came to Mother Teresa's defense while calling Adityanath a liar and unfit for the title yogi or ascetic.

"This is not the first time Yogi Adityanath has been spewing venom," charged Mathai, as quoted by Matters India. "The title yogi is total misfit for him; I don't see any spirituality in this man."

He added that if what the parliamentarian said about the conversion was true, then there's nothing to show for it because the numbers of Indian Christians hardly increased since the country gained independence. He cited that it's only 2.5 percent now from 2.4 percent when India was liberated.

He also questioned where the yogis were while Mother Teresa returned from overseas to help the poor in India.

Various human rights advocates criticize the BJP party under Prime Minister Narendra for emboldening the Hindu radicals as Christian persecution increased in the country.

According to TheNortheastToday, discriminatory remarks by Modi's party members against other religious groups often go unpunished.