Cithara Paul By

NEW DELHI: It looks like Prime Minister Narendra Modi won’t be visiting Vatican to attend the canonisation of Mother Teresa in September. Curiously, invited by Kolkata-based Missionaries of Charity (MoC), a rainbow coalition of opposition CMs has seized the opportunity to show off their secular credentials.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will be leading the delegation. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan will reach Rome for the September 4 ceremony.

“ We have invited the CMs of the states where we have a presence and most of them have accepted our invitation to be part of the delegation for the canonisation ceremony,’’ said a sister with MoC.

Banerjee had announced her decision to attend the function last month on Twitter: “I have accepted the invitation.” The CM will be part of the MoC delegation and will be accompanied by Sister Prema, the Superior General German-born Sister Mary Prema.

Mamata shares a good rapport with Missionaries of Charity (MoC) and had supported the organisation when it had decided to opt out from the adoption programme over differences with the BJP government at the Centre.

Nitish and Kejriwal too had supported MoC when RSS chief Bhagawat had criticised her by saying that conversion was the real motive behind Mother Teresa’s charity works.

“Mother Teresa’s work had ulterior motive, which was to convert the person who was being served to Christianity,” Bhagwat had said.

Sources said, two BJP CMs have also accepted the invitation. “The BJP CMs are also keen but have not committed. They may be wary of the RSS approval,’’ he said. The sources that the Church are of the view that PM, who was “very keen’’ initially, had to back off due to the RSS pressure.

Now the Government has decided to send External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to lead the official delegation. It is not clear whether it is the RSS pressure or the presence of his opponents including Kejriwal and Mamata that has led to

PM backing off. Sources with the government, however, insists that PM has not buckled under pressure from RSS or any other group.

“PM is not going for the event as it is purely a religious function. But the fact that the delegation is being headed by the MEA minister shows the importance the government attaches to Mother Teresa.

“The minister of External Affairs will personally convey the message that the Indian government is very keen to have Pope over to India,’’ said the source. When asked about the presence of CMs belonging to the opposition space, the source said that they may be going to prove political points with an eye of the Christian vote bank.