Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Minister takes on Catholic church over education

Kerala Education Minister M. A. Baby has decried the Catholic church’s fresh threat to launch a second liberation struggle in Kerala to protect the educational rights of the minorities.

The threat was sounded by Trichur Archbishop Andrews Thazhathu while addressing a rally taken out by teachers employed in Christian schools under the diocese in protest against the Left Democratic Front government’s move to hand over education to local bodies.

He said the present socio-economic condition in the state did not warrant a repeat of the liberation struggle launched in 1959 by the Congress with the help of religious and social organisations to oust the first democratically elected Communist ministry headed by E. M. S. Nampoothiripad.

“We are not denying minority communities the rights guaranteed in the Constitution. We are only against the exploitation by some in the name of minorities,’’ Baby told reporters here yesterday.

He said that the government would not allow anybody to commercialise education in the name of minority rights. “The poor sections among the minorities are with the government in this regard,’’ he claimed.

Minorities, including the Muslims, fear that the government decision is part of a move to wrest control of their educational institutions. While several bishops have appealed to the faithful to rise against the threat, various Muslim organisations are gearing up for an agitation.

The Trichur Archbishop threatened to launch a second liberation struggle after an awareness campaign on the government's move.

A pastoral letter was read in all the churches under the diocese last week.

A similar pastoral letter of Changanacherry Archbishop Mar Joseph Perunthottam was read in all churches across the diocese yesterday.

It said the government was not only trying to wrest control of the minority educational institutions but also trying propagate to their political ideology by politicising the curriculum.

The latest tussle between the Christian managements and the Marxist-led govt comes close on the heels of the confrontation between the two over fees and quota in Church-run self-financing medical and engineering colleges.

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