>> SANGH SEES RED,

The Centre’s move to send a delegation led by foreign minister Sushma Swaraj to the Vatican for Mother Teresa’s canonisation on September 4 appears to be the latest point of confrontation between the BJP and the Sangh Parivar.

The Parivar affiliates, still smarting from PM Narendra Modi’s criticism of cow vigilantes, see the move as an affront to their ideology.

“It becomes hard for the Sangh brass to explain to the workers the rationale for change in the BJP’s position. For now, the RSS brass has put down the decision to political compulsions,” a Sangh functionary said on condition of anonymity.

The RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP, and its partner organisations have always been suspicious of Albania-born Mother Teresa, accusing her of using Missionaries of Charity that she founded in 1950 of trying to convert people to Christianity.

Conversions are an emotive issue for the RSS which says Christian missionaries spread out to remote corners of India to proselytize tribals and poor Hindus.

While the RSS described the move as a “political decision by an elected government”, its hardline affiliates such as the VHP are not pulling their punches.

“The whole process of anointing her as a saint in itself is a falsehood. In this day and age it is specious to talk of miracles,” VHP’s international joint general secretary Surendra Jain said.

(with agency inputs)