Category: National

Siji Antony was initially thrilled when, after many hurdles, she received her visa for a medical nurse’s job in Saudi Arabia in 2013. A handsome salary and the lure of a big city added to the excitement. But her joy was short-lived.

The restrictions on the practices of her Catholic faith in the kingdom was a major cause for concern. In her home state of Kerala in southern India, she attended Mass daily. “The prospect of living without Sunday Mass was horrifying for me,” she said. Siji belongs to the Syro-Malabar rite, one of the three rites that make up the Catholic Church in India. Based in Kerala, they trace the origin of their faith to St Thomas the Apostle who, according to tradition, visited India in the first century and where it is said he died.

Starved of a religious practice she was accustomed too, Siji thought of inviting her Christian colleagues on Sundays for group prayer in her hostel room.

“I can only pray silently in my room. I have done so for the last four years. I speak of my miseries to God directly,” Siji told. She is now searching for a job in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the rulers permit people to practice their different faiths.

Of these, church records list some 400,000 Catholics of the Syro-Malabar rite. A 2013 church survey revealed some 75 percent of the migrants are young people aged between 20 and 32. Fr Shaji Kochupurayil, secretary of the Syro-Malabar Church’s Commission for Evangelization and Pastoral Care of the Migrants, said the migrants have spread across nations such as Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The situation in Saudi Arabia “is very difficult” regarding religious practices of Christians, Father Kochupurayil told.

Archbishop Susapakiam of Thiruvananthapuram and Kerala Regional Latin Catholic Council representatives have demanded Rs 3500 crore package from the Centre for the Ockhi-affected people in Kerala. “The package should include protection of coastal area, basic development of fishermen community, availability of communication facility and house construction.

Fishermen should be given 25% representation in Navy, Coastguard and Marine police. The disaster management facility in the eastern coast of India should be made available in Kerala. The Centre should start Fisheries ministry,” they demanded.

They said a memorandum would be submitted to the Prime Minister including the above demands.

Hundreds of disgruntled fishermen and their family members blocked the national highway for over five hours on Dec 9 demand-ing the government agencies take additional steps to find the fishermen who are still missing in the sea.

The protest under the banner of Kerala Regional Latin Catholic Council started at 10am and lasted until 3.30 pm. The agitation was called off after the state government assured them that more fishermen would be taken aboard the vessels going for search and rescue operations from December 9 onwards.

Fishermen in Paruthiyoor and Pozhiyoor coastal villages had been alleging apathy on the part of authorities in carrying out search and rescue operations to trace fishermen from the area.

Fr Eugine Pereira, vicar general of Trivandrum Latin archdiocese, said a few local fishermen who were not satisfied with the search and rescue activities of the government ventured into the sea on Dec 7. They went up to 172 nautical miles off the coast and spotted wreckages of several country boats and a couple of bodies. “After returning to the sea, they had been demanding more search and rescue operations, but there was no response from the part of the government. That is why they were forced to block the highway,” the vicar general said. So far 56 persons are found to be dead.

Catholic dioceses in the southern Indian coastal regions have appealed to help people devastated by cyclone Ockhi that hit the Trivandrum and Kanya-kumari districts on Nov. 29. Several hundred fishermen are feared missing, Fr Deepak Anto, executive secretary of the media commission of the Latin Arch-diocese of Trivandrum, wrote in an email to the Vatican’s Secre-tariat for Communication urging for help.

Fr Deepak said the affected Trivandrum Archdiocese and Tamil Nadu’s Kottar Diocese “are very much engaged in the rescue operation and relief work” in collaboration with the state and central governments.

Trivandrum Archdiocese has appealed to draw attention to the emergency that the international and national media have “unfortunately” “not given enough coverage,” Fr Deepak said.

The Latin Catholic Church has decided to intensify its agitation until all fishermen left stranded in the outer sea by cyclone Ockhi are rescued.

A meeting of the pastoral council under the Thiruvanantha-puram archdiocese of the Church, convened by Archbishop Soosa Pakiam M., decided to launch day-and-night agitations at various places including Thiru-vananthapuram, Kochi and Tuti-corin on December 11.

A demonstration will also be taken out to the Raj Bhavan in protest against the delay in rescuing those missing.

Secretariat siege: Vicar-General Eugene H. Pereira told media persons that the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard were hesitant about expanding their search in the outer sea. The Church demanded that the Centre deploy defence aircraft in the rescue effort. The agitation will continue until the last person is rescued.

As a debate rages over growing intolerance in the country, former US President Barack Obama on December 1 disclosed that he had privately told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India must not split on sectarian lines and that it must cherish the fact that Muslims here identify themselves as Indians.

“Particularly in a country like India where you have such an enormous Muslim population that is successful, integrated and thinks of itself as Indian and that is unfortunately always not the case in some other countries where a religious minority never-theless feels a part of. I think that is something that should be cheri-shed, nurtured and cultivated.

“And I think that all farsi-ghted Indian leadership recog-nises that but it is important to continue and reinforce that,” he said speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

Obama, who was making his first visit to India after demitting office earlier this year, was remi-nded of his speech at Siri Fort auditorium on January 27, 2015 — the last day of his last visit to India as US President — in which he sounded caution “against any efforts to divide ourselves along sectarian lines” and pointedly asked if the message was directed at the Modi led BJP government.

He said the message was meant for “all of us” and “the same thing” was told “in private to Prime Minister Modi.”

“If you see a politician doing things that are questionable one of things as citizens you can ask yourself is am I encouraging or supporting or giving licence to the values? If communities across India are saying we are not going to fall prey to division then that will strengthen the hands of those politicians who feel the same way.”

More than a billion dollars is being spent on giant statues of a nationa-list leader, a former king and a Hindu deity in three Indian states where pov-erty is widespread.

All of the states involved are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which uses jingo-ism and triumphalism to swing votes their way.

Pravin Mishra, a civil rights activist, said the phenomenon neglected practical needs of ordinary people such as improving health and education services. In Gujarat, a 213-meter statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, a prominent leader of India’s freedom struggle and a native of the state, is under construction at an estimated cost of US$470 million.

In neighboring Maha-rashtra, a 61-meter statue of Shivaji, a 17th century Maratha king, is being built for US$300 million.

In India’s most popu-lous State, Uttar Pradesh, US$300 million has been allocated for a 91-meter statue of Hindu lord Ram.

Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 200 million, had the highest proportion of homeless people in India (18.56%) followed by Maharashtra (11.9%) and Rajasthan (10.24%).

Mishra notes that the International Food Policy Research Institute recently ranked India at 100th out of 119 countries on its global hunger index, behind North Korea, Bangladesh and Iraq.

Legislators and churches in Nagaland have agreed to lead and take the responsibility of a fair and honest electoral practice.

The affirmation was made as part of a colloquium on Clean Election organised in Kohima on Nov 29 by the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) for the churches and legislators of Nagaland.

“The legislators, churches and citizens affirm that all of us have an investment in the future of the state of Nagaland and that our shared future must flourish without any obstacles,” read a joint statement signed by Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang for the legislators and NBCC secretary general Rev Zelhou Keyho and Nagaland Joint Christian Forum vice president Rev Dr N Paphino for the churches.

“The commitment was done in the spirit of true Christian repentance as we realise that serious malpractices surrounding the conduct of state elections is the major cause of most of the problems that we are facing today,” the statement read.

The signatories on behalf of the legislators and the churches in the state also affirmed to lead and take the responsibility of putting in place fair and honest electoral practices.