West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee today expressed ‘shock’ over reports that the Union ministry of home affairs has frozen the bank accounts of the Kolkata-based Missionaries of Charity, founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mother Teresa.

“Shocked to hear that on Christmas, Union Ministry froze all bank accounts of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in India. Their 22,000 patients & employees have been left without food & medicines,” she posted on Twitter. While the law is paramount, humanitarian efforts must not be compromised, she added.

Meanwhile, the Vicar General, Archdiocese of Calcutta, Fr. Dominic Gomes issued a statement saying: “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. Besides over 22,000 direct dependants and beneficiaries at their centres across the country, MC Sisters and Brothers reach out to uplift thousands and are often the only friends of the lepers and social outcast no one will even venture near.

Overlooking the fact MCs of St. Mother Teresa give up all worldly goods, sleep on the floor and, and earn no money – giving whatever they have in service to the poorest in every corner of the earth, especially our poorest of Indians, the Vicar General said. 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, he said.

“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 Vicar General said. The bogey of “conversion” always been raised as justification, is more than patently false, boggles the mind with its incredulity – had any Christian organisation seriously tried to “convert” with the efficiency they run their educational, medical and social intuitions; there would indeed be many more Christians converted in the 2000 years, stated the Vicar General.

Christianity, across the globe is not defined by conversion, but by their unappalled love for their neighbour in action through their social outreach and social justice in society, he added.