By Matters India Reporter
Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 1, 2022: A Catholic priest has vowed to quit priesthood and face any punishment if an allegation is proved that a Church-led protest against seaport project has received foreign fund to destabilize the country.
“Our hands are clean and ready to face any probe,” says Father Theodacious D’Cruz, one of the conveners of the fishermen’s protest against Adani international seaport at Vizhinjam coast in Thiruvananthapuram district in the southern Indian state of Kerala .
Hundreds of thousand fishermen and their family members have been protesting against the construction of the private seaport since July 20 after Kerala’s Communist-led government refused to accept their demands for resettlement and rehabilitation.
“Our protest has now entered the 105th-day and we are getting good public support, but we are being accused of accepting foreign funds to destabilize the country and its developments,” Father D’Cruz told Matters India on November 1.
The priest was responding to the allegation that Aleyamma Vijayan, the secretary of Sakhi Women’s Resource Centre, received funds for the ongoing coastal protest. She is the wife of A J Vijayan, a trade union leader and a petitioner in the National Green Tribunal against the port project.
Aleyamma has filed a defamation suit against the news channel “News 18” that carried the controversial news. In the petition, she said the organization has been working in human rights since 1996 in Thiruvananthapuram. It is registered as a Public Charitable Trust with a Foreign Contribution Regulation Act registration to receive funds.
“Sakhi’s activities are very transparent. Since it is a registered body under the Indian Trust Act, its income has been audited every year and its income tax returns have been filed promptly,” said Aleyamma in the petition.
She also said Sakhi had received foreign funds for the implementation of the projects done by them and not for the cause of fish workers at Vizhinjam as alleged. The organization has not accepted funds after Covid as they could not conduct field studies. She demanded the channel to tender an apology or pay 10 million rupees in damages.
News 18 had also accused Father D’Cruz of taking 250 million rupees as foreign donation.
“If the channel can prove I have taken 25 paise from any foreign country I will quite my priesthood and undergo any punishment,” he said adding if the channel is not able to prove it “it should provide 3 cent land to each fisherman who lost his house due to the port project and build houses for him.”
He pointed out the funds from overseas received by the Latin archdiocese of Trivandrum are monitored by the federal government and “it takes no time for it to take action against me in case I have taken any foreign funds illegally.”
The channel released a video clip of the priest taking contribution from the Latin Catholics working in Dubai claiming that the priest had taken money from Dubai Sheikh.
“It is true that our brothers and sisters working in Dubai had donated 25,000 rupees. Does that mean that we got it from any Sheikh from Dubai?” he asked and challenged the television channel and other media houses to prove the allegations with evidence.
The priest also questioned their logic of a Sheikh from Dubai donating 25,000 rupees.
All these media campaigns “are part of the strategy at the behest of the private firm to undermine the fishermen’s struggle for survival,” Father D’Cruz alleged.
Meanwhile, the fisherfolk asserted that they would not give up their protests until their demands are met.
The protesting fishermen have been demanding to rehabilitate their fellowmen who lost their house to the seawater after the Adani seaport construction began in 2015, subsidy to kerosene like what is given in neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu, house rent to those living in warehouses among their seven demands.
The main dispute, however, between the government and the protesters is the their demand to halt the port construction work for three months and order an impartial social impact assessment as they believe since the construction work started they lost their houses and kilometres of their seashore.
The government, on the contrary, agreed to accept all their demands, barring stopping the construction work as it will affect the image of the state.
China certainly wanted to see the Vizhinjam Seaport Project stopped for good. If there are problems with the project, solutions can always be found to rectify them. Since the Latin Catholic Church is not interested in reasonable solutions and is prolonging the agitation, it is natural that common people suspect its motive.