The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief, Mohan Bhagwat, believes that Mother Teresa and her charitable organisation, the Missionaries of Charity, were driven by ulterior motives as they helped the poor and destitute. According to Bhagwat, Mother Teresa was being selfish and her charity was aimed at converting the poor to Christianity.

But may we dare ask, is Mother Teresa truly above all criticism and question?

For instance, she encouraged baptism of dying patients, regardless of their personal faith. In a speech at Scripps Clinic, California in January 1992, she said,

"We call baptism ticket for St. Peter. We ask the person, do you want a blessing by which your sins will be forgiven and you receive God? They have never refused. So 29,000 have died in that one house [in Kalighat] from the time we began in 1952."

She faced flake for her strong anti-abortion stand, the substandard condition of the hospices under her care and controversial views, such as the time she supported Indira Gandhi and the Emergency imposed in India. British author Christopher Hitchens has, in fact, chronicled all of these views, and more, on Mother Teresa in his essay The Missionary Position.

But her work in helping the destitute and the efforts of the Missionaries of Charity in helping the poor and dying, especially living off the streets in Kolkata, cannot be denied.