'Mother Teresa St' sparks row

2002-03-19 10:54

Kamil Zaheer

Calcutta - A row has erupted here about a plan to rename a street known for its throbbing night life after Mother Teresa, the Roman Catholic nun revered for her work with the city's poor.

"There are other ways to honour Mother Teresa," said Dwijen Mukherjee, a Bengali singer.

Calcutta mayor Subrata Mukherjee sparked the controversy this month by proposing that bustling Park Street be renamed after the nun, who founded the global Missionaries of Charity order in the city and died in 1997.

Mukherjee's suggestion outraged some of the city's 100 000 Roman Catholics, who said this would taint the "spirituality" surrounding her life.

Mother Teresa, of Albanian origin, won the Nobel peace prize for her work. The Vatican is considering the case for her eventual canonisation.

"I would not like my son to visit a disco and tell me that it is located on Mother Teresa Sarani (street)," said Suman Gupta, a Roman Catholic, who with 19 others has urged the mayor to reconsider.

The Missionaries of Charity, founded in 1950, back Mukherjee's plan.

Sister Christie, the religious order's spokesperson, said she did not think renaming Park Street would sully Mother Teresa's memory. "It will keep alive her memory," she said.

Others in the street agree. "Park Street also has a famous college, cemetery, art gallery, and a library. This is an unnecessary controversy," said Pradyot Chattopadhyay, manager of Cambridge Bookshop, one of the landmarks of Park Street.

Mayor Mukherjee himself is unfazed. "It would be only proper that we have a landmark of the city named after Mother Teresa," he said.

- Reuters