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Church to go ahead with tomorrow's rally in Kerala

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The judicial inquiry ordered by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led coalition government in Kerala into the attack on the Nirmalagiri College principal by a group of students affiliated to the ruling party on November1, does not seem to have brought to an end the slanging match between the government and the Church.

Both are now preparing for a showdown. While the Church has decided to go ahead with its decision to organise a rights rally at Kannur tomorrow, the CPI-M proposes to counter it with its own mass rally on November 22.

Fr. Geo Pulickkal, principal of Nirmalagiri College, was attacked during the course of an agitation organised by the Students Federation of India demanding the reinstatement of a student expelled by the college for assaulting another student. While the parents of the student reportedly had agreed to settle the issue if the college issued a transfer certificate, the SFI insisted that the student be reinstated.

The issue snowballed into a major controversy when the SFI raked up a two-month old ragging case and sought action against several priests for alleged cases of sexual assault and torture. The Church stepped in when the SFI campaign turned into a full-fledged attack against the clergy and decided to close down the college indefinitely.

Now, the Church does not seem to be satisfied with the inquiry ordered by the government. The Rights Protection Forum chairman Fr Mathew M Chali said that they would have to make a serious study of the terms of reference of the inquiry before responding to the government initiative to end the crisis.

"We are not clear what action would be taken against those who were responsible for the attack, destruction of college property and false criminal cases against the college staff and priests," he added.

The Church maintained that it would go ahead with tomorrow's rally.

The college authorities' refusal to reopen the college and the Church's decision to go ahead with the rally has obviously jolted the government.

Education Minister P J Joseph, who brokered the peace deal, said he was at a loss to understand what more the Church expected from the government. ''They had not raised any other issue during the discussions with me. If they had any other apprehension they should have raised it during the meeting," he said and added that it was unfair on the part of the college authorities to keep the college closed.

The CPI-M, on the other hand, is worried about the immediate fallout of the incident. The party fears that the compromise made by the government could encourage the Kerala Private College Managements' Association, which controls 192 private colleges in the state, to clamp down on students' activities.

They feel that SFI being the dominant students' organisation in the state, it would be the first target.

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