Mother Teresa conspired to “brainwash” Hindus into Christianity and helped fuel a violent military insurgency in India’s northeast, leaders of India’s ruling BJP have claimed.

The controversy come just weeks ahead of Mother Teresa’s canonisation on September 4, when celebrations are expected in her adopted city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) despite the Nobel Laureate’s divisive legacy in India.

Yogi Adityanath, an outspoken MP and Hindu priest, told a religious meeting in Uttar Pradesh state on Saturday that Mother Teresa had been “part of a conspiracy for Christianisation of India”.

Hindu poor, particularly from lower castes, turn to missionaries when they are unable to afford medical care for their children, but are “brainwashed” into becoming Christians, he warned.

“It is a conspiracy against the Hindus,” said Mr Adityanath, 44. "Hindus were targeted in the name of doing service and then converted by her."

He added that large-scale Christian conversions “led to to separatist movements” in parts of northeast, including Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland.