How Kerala Church was lured into education conclave

By Vincent Perappaden

Thiruvananthapuram, June 12, 2022: It was named as a conclave. The attendees were about 150 priests, religious sisters, and lay leaders who run schools and colleges in Kerala. It looked like a meeting of the Catholic educational leaders convened by the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Conference (KCBC) at its headquarters in Kochi.

However, it was called by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s State Minority Morcha and convened at a five-star hotel in Kochi. Educational leaders like school principals, college principals, and administrators responded eagerly to the initiative and invitation of the BJP State Minority Morcha.

However, the official invitation was from the KCBC’s Education Commission. The overwhelming response in numbers apparently surprised the organizers. The dynamics of the conclave, its agenda, and the political motives raise some significant and crucial questions in the air. Before coming to those questions, let’s examine some details of the program.

What was it?

Literally, a conclave means a private gathering. It is a term derived from the practice of the private gathering of the cardinals of the Catholic Church to elect its Pope. Thus, a conclave is a private meeting of very selected participants for a predefined purpose. In the same way, the conclave organized by the BJP Minority Morcha on May 19 at Lulu Marriot in Kochi was for the Catholic managers and principals of every Catholic educational institution in Kerala to discuss National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

According to the letter dated April 28 from the secretary of KCBC Commission Trust for Education, it was a communication sent “very urgently as per the direction of our Commission chairman Joshua Mar Ignathios.” The communication further informed: “[t]his [conclave] is organized by State Minority Morch[a] Committee and the Central Union Minister for Education is attending the conclave. The main purpose is to suggest ways and means to implement the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. There will be opportunities to express our anxieties and apprehensions related to NEP 2020. You will be receiving special invitation and please do attend.”

From the tone and the force of the communication, every institution should be represented by its head in the conclave. However, this communication was clearly and intentionally misleading. First, it concealed that the “State Minority Morch[a]” is the BJP’s political wing of minorities, especially of Christians (and particularly of the Syro-Malabar Christians of Kerala).

The readers of the invitation had no clue that they were going to participate in a BJP’s politically calculated program. Second, the communication described that the purpose of the conclave was to suggest implementation strategies for the NEP reforms. This statement was intentionally false. BJP’s State Minority Morcha had no power or role in implementing the NEP 2020. Still, the letter unequivocally stated that the conclave’s purpose is directly related to the implementation of the NEP 2020. Therefore, suggesting ways and means for the NEP reforms in a conclave of a political party appears like a trap to allure the educators.

Third, the communication expressively declared that the Union Minister of Education (although Dharmendra Pradhan’s name was not mentioned) will be attending the conclave. However, the truth was that the Minister of Education had no program in Kerala on his agenda of that day. Instead, it was the Union Minister for Minority Affairs John Barla, who has nothing to do with the NEP 2020, who attended.

Finally, the communication purportedly lured the Catholic educators that the attendees will have opportunities to express their “anxieties and apprehensions related to [the] NEP 2020” implying that the Minister of Education will be present to listen to them. The fact was there were no one from the government or from the appropriate authority to heed to the Catholic educators’ “anxieties and apprehensions” regarding the NEP 2020.

What happened in the conclave?

It was a well-set and well-lit centrally airconditioned conference hall with tables and chairs set for conference-cum-dining. On the backdrop it was clearly presented that the conclave was “an initiative of BJP Minority Morcha, Kerala.” There was a registration counter at the entrance where all the participants registered their names, addresses, and phone numbers. The organizers reverently ushered each of the attendees to their seats placing the priests around the front tables and the sisters in the back rows from the middle. Although the proceeding started much later than it was announced, the conducting of the it was quite formal, compered by a professional.

There were three panel discussions in the conclave. The first was on school reforms. The panelists highlighted the NEP 2020 stipulations as revolutionizing school education in India for the first time in history. The second was on higher education. Here the presenters glorified the imagined India that shines in the world as “Vishwaguru.”

And the third was on teacher education in which the panelists presented a picture of the existing corrupt system that will be radically undone by the implementation of the NEP reforms. Invariably, each of the panelists was eulogizing the NEP 2020 stipulations interpreting them as the roadmap for India’s ascend to a glorified nation on the top of the world.

Among the panelists were some former and present vice-chancellors of universities, and some freelance speakers from other fields. At the same time, they all were hardcore BJP supporters. All presenters insisted on uncritically accepting and adopting the NEP 2020 since the Central Government is determined to do it. It was clarified that all the confusions and concerns related to the stipulations will be addressed by separate government orders.

The conclusion of all the panel discussions were loud and clear: whatever the BJP government does is to protect the national interest; there is no need for any apprehension or critical questions; trust the government and that it will do good for you; the NEP 2020 is the finest proof for a government that delivers what it promised.

However, the most important part of the conclave was not the panel discussions. They were only the allurements to draw the participants to the program. Organizers’ entire attention was on the conclave’s inaugural function. To make sure all participants’ presence, the inaugural function was held after the first panel discussion. The elevated platform was filled with 16 chairs. Among those who occupied the dais were the BJP’s and Minority Morcha leaders, some retired vice-chancellors and Padma awardees, and a Catholic priest.

Minister for Minority Affairs John Barla was on the center seat. The national president of the Minority Morcha welcomed everyone with a detailed introduction about each. The welcome address gave an impetus to the session pontificating the BJP’s Minority Morcha’s Catholic leaders and their roles in organizing the conclave.

The minister addressed the assembly in English impressing the audience on his personal relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and explaining the government’s schemes, resources, and scholarships for the minorities. He emphasized that those generous Central Government schemes are not utilized by Christians either because of their lack of awareness or because of their prejudices against the government. Both must be cleared with intentional actions, he insisted.

Moreover, the minister offered every participant a booklet detailing the minority schemes. (However, the Morcha leaders want to make it another opportunity to appease Christians. Consequently, they are planning to visit each participant’s institution to hand over the handbook).

The Minister reiterated that the Christians have the political responsibility to communicate emphatically with data that they are a community contributing significantly to the nation-building. In our institutions, all students are treated indiscriminately. As a result, many engineers, doctors, IT professionals, leaders, and more have been produced by Christian institutions.

The Church is the leader of providing healthcare to all sections of society in India. In his opinion, the BJP and the Hindutva forces are creating a narrative against Christians because of their ignorance and misunderstanding. Offering himself as an apostle and mediator for the minorities, he assured his whole-hearted assistance for the community in dealing with any of the problems with the government. Interestingly, the NEP 2020 was not a topic of his address.

In the same way, the speakers who followed the minister impressed the audience with extolling the Minority Morcha’s office bearers. They explained the huge acts of hard work for coordinating, communicating, preparing, and executing the conclave. In other words, the session presented a picture that the BJP Minority Morcha is the way to save the Church from all its troubles in India.

Significantly, none of the speakers, including the Catholic priest from the Malankara Church, had any concerns or complaints to make on behalf of the Christian community. There were no references or allusions to the targeted legislations, sanctions, and attacks on Christians and other minority communities in India.

Among the speakers, the 79-year-old Syriac Thomas, a former vice-chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University, stood out with his eloquence and calculated words. He placed Modi next to Pope Francis in the world-ranking of top ethical leaders. Using the BJP rhetoric, he claimed that the NEP 2020 stipulations impeccably aligned with the national ambitions for development, inclusion, and perfectly matched with the aspirations of the minority communities.

He found the NEP 2020 stipulations in flawless alignment with the Christian vision of education and exhorted the community to uncritically accept and adopt the reforms. In the end of the speech, he did not forget to express his firm hope that the prime minister would invite Pope Francis to India without delay, and if possible, for the next Republic Day celebrations.

What is coming next?

By way of the registration details, the BJP Minority Morcha has collected the addresses with phone numbers of all the participants. Thus, now they know the Catholic institutions and their heads. They assured that the local BJP workers will be visiting each of these institutions under the cover of distributing the booklet offered by the minister. Their agenda will be to explain the schemes and projects of the Central Government for the minority communities and to attract the institutions and heads to the BJP’s political network.

It is based on their well-researched wisdom that the institutionalized Catholic Church will easily submit to any political interest if their institutions are influenced. Apparently, the RSS and the Parivar got the Catholic Church doors widely opened for them by capitalizing the NEP 2020 confusions and chaos. To their favor, the Communist Government in Kerala has not initiated any debate or discussion on the NEP 2020 while the Central Government through its various forums advance the implementation campaign.

Questions in the air

The conclave that successfully gathered many Catholic educational leaders precipitates some crucial and critical questions. What is the collective response of the Church to the hidden Hindutva agenda of the NEP 2020? For example, how does the Church react to the non-recognition of Christian institutions in the NEP 2020 and the categorization of institutions into private and public? In school education reforms, how does the Church respond to the NEP-created open spaces for the local organizations (like the RSS) to enter and interfere with educational institutions?

More importantly, how does the Church deal with the prescription that every higher education institution becomes an autonomous college or a multidisciplinary university? What about the educational needs of rural youth catered by small and single-stream institutions in their areas? How are the educators and institutional heads going to deal with the threats and challenges of the NEP 2020?

There are still more questions.

Does the Church leadership trust that the BJP Minority Morcha is the solution for the conflicts with the Sangh Parivar-led threats to the Church in different parts of India? Does the Church leadership discern the political motives and divisive agenda in gathering exclusively Christians, especially Catholics, under the cover of the NEP 2020 and minority concerns?

Finally, does the Church take any serious step to enlighten its educational leadership on the impacts and consequences on its institutions if the NEP 2020 is implemented? Conversely, is the Church leadership taking any serious step to study how to take advantage of the NEP 2020 without harming its interests?

These are some questions looming in the air and seeking answers and appropriate actions. It looks like the NEP prescriptions are to be challenged in the court by a team of learned lawyers mandated by the minority communities and those sections most impacted by its implementation. If the Church leadership fails to sense these questions and to take steps to defend its interests, its institutions could become RSS-BJP-governed, claiming that that is the NEP 2020 vision of education.

(Jesuit Father Vincent Pereppadan is the director of Global Young Researchers’ Academy, Loyola Extension Services, Sreekaryam, Thiruvananthapuram.)