Kerala nuns transferred: Activists, where are your protests now?

The ordeal of nuns exposes chicanery of Left wing on women’s issues.

The silence is deafening.

Four Kerala nuns, who campaigned against former Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal for allegedly sexually assaulting a nun, have got notices to leave their Kuravilangad convent. The nuns were transferred last year itself. This was just a reminder notice. So they have been at the receiving end for quite some time now.

Also read: 4 nuns who stood up to Kerala bishop transferred out of convent

But the Left wing politicians who project themselves at being the forefront of women’s uplift are embraced in an undignified quietude.

No candle light vigils. No miles-long human chain. No demonstrations. No political rallies. No slogan-shouting outside the convent.

This is in contrast to the unseemly and over the top protests on the Sabarimala issue, in which many women themselves have a different opinion than the ones espoused by the Left liberals. 

“The Left wing politicians, who are in power now in the state, have well and truly given up on the pretence of being secular and exposed themselves by aligning with the powerful church in the state,” said Biju Ashwath, a professor in Thiruvananthapuram.

“Not that we long-time watchers of Left needed any proof. But after the Vanitha Mathil (Women’s Wall), they were crowing great things about themselves. Now all their claims have been proven to be a sham,” he added.

The alleged sexual assault by Bishop Franco Mulakkal has had the entire nation up in metaphorical arms, but notwithstanding the widespread condemnation of it, the Church has brazened it out by backing the reported perpetrator of the heinous crime.

Worse, now the Church is going after the nuns who stood in solidarity of the victim. Rather than supporting them, the Left wing politicos, in a show of disgusting chicanery, are closing ranks with the Church. This is in contrast with what they are up to on the Sabarimala issue.

The Sabarimala issue, in fact, is not an open and shut case. Both the camps have genuine points for reasoned debate. But the Leftists, riding roughshod over both nuance and popular Hindu sentiments, have been mischievously backing some protesters who are trying to fish in troubled waters.

“The thing is women activists trying to enter the Sabarimala temple were not impelled by devotion. They were trying to score brownie points, which on an emotive issue is actually silly. Most women in the state are not for breaking the tradition of the hoary temple,” said K Indhu of Pathanamthitta, a student leader of a nearby college.

Indhu’s opinion seems to be the prevailing one in the state. Even the mother-in-law of Kanagadurga, one of the two women who reportedly slithered into the temple two weeks ago, was against it, as she picked a quarrel with her over it.

Kanagadurga’s brother has been quoted in the local press saying that her entry was a conspiracy by the CPI-M, and she was kept in custody beyond the reach of her husband and relatives.

But in the case of nuns, which pertains to a brutal rape, the Left is maintaining a conspiracy of silence.

The protesting nuns have been told in no uncertain terms that they should not let their legal obligations come in the way of their religious vows. This has the Leftists’ tacit approval, while they want legal process, which is still far from complete, to trump age-old traditions and strong beliefs of lakhs and lakhs in the Sabarimala issue.

“It is a shameful double-faced show. It is sickening that they have anointed themselves as liberals and superciliously look down upon other views. That is the tragedy of Kerala now,” said Ashwath.

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