The protest by nuns is a fight against injustice and denial of human rights, Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran has said.
He was speaking at a people’s collective on Wednesday to express solidarity with the protest of nuns in Kochi seeking the arrest of Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal who is accused of raping a nun.
Mr. Sudheeran said the protest by the nuns was an unusual one but was not against the Church. The bishop should have stepped aside and expressed readiness to face the law, rather than drag the Church into it. “He has brought disrepute to the Church,” Mr. Sudheeran said.
The government came to power with the avowed aim of protecting women, but truth was being compromised under it, he alleged.
The investigation was on track initially, but of late the police, including the State Police Chief, were trying to derail it and let the accused go free. Sending a notice to the bishop summoning him before the investigation team was a bid to pull the wool over people’s eyes, he said.
Mr. Sudheeran also flayed two MLAs for their conduct against women.
Geervaghese Mar Koorilos, Metropolitan of the Niranom diocese of the Jacobite Syrian Church, said incidents of abuse in the State were rampant, like a deluge.
Jesme, former Principal of St. Mary’s College, Thrissur, who has left the Congregation of Mother Carmelite and is the author of Amen: The Autobiography of a Nun , said the wrongdoings in the Church should come out so that it did not spread like a cancer. “Whom should nuns approach when those who are supposed to protect them start harassing them?” she said.
Poet and activist Sugathakumari said the right of the nun was primary. “Everyone in the State should support her. It will be a victory for the State and for womanhood.”
Criminal actions
Bharatiya Janata Party district president S. Suresh said the gathering was a statement against hiding criminal actions behind a cloak of religion and politics.
Political party leaders such as P.P. Mukundan and V. Surendran Pillai and programme organisers Vishnupuram Chandrasekhar and Jomon Puthenpurackal spoke.
