Mother Teresa may have been an icon of the West but from a pure Indian perspective she did very little for the country indeed the opposite. The Nobel committee awarded the Peace Prize to her, not to the Father of the Nation Gandhiji who did much more to inspire peaceful struggle. Gandhji was against conversions by Christians whereas MT lead on this front, backed by the Vatican.
In 1999 Pope John Paul II in his "Ecclesia in Asia" declared "in the 1st millennium the cross was planted in Europe in the 2nd, Americas and Africa, in the 3rd we will plant it in Asia (read India as China curtails conversions)", and it is he who fast tracked her to Sainthood. MT is known in the West for her work amongst the poor of Kolkata portraying the former British Capital of India in poor light worldwide. Her mission collected £75m in her lifetime but very little was spent on the poor, allowing those under her care to suffer, (in the name of Jesus) by giving love, instead of proper medical care. When a Kolkata born and bred Bengali Dr Aroup Chatterjee came to the UK it was the first time he heard of Mother Teresa of Kolkota, and was so shocked at the portrayal of Kolkota in the west it lead him to write a book "MT The Untold story" on the truth behind the myth. Being a Bengali Indian his views are largely ignored in the West even though he tells the truth that she did not cure cancer.
Jayesh A Patel
Wimbledon, London SW20
