• Bishop Prince Antony Panengadan
  Diocese of Adilabad

The sacred tradition of India says “acharya devo bhava”, i.e. teacher is to be considered like God. To the contrary, teachers were disrespectfully treated and assaulted in a school campus on the basis of false allegations, in the name of God at that! This heinous act took place in Mother Theresa School, Luxettipet, of Mancherial District in Telangana, a school that has been providing quality education to children of all categories, regardless of caste and creed, for the last fifteen years.
On Monday, 15th April, when a few students came to school wearing saffron dress instead of the school uniform as part of Hanuman deeksha, Fr. Joby Dominic MCBS, the principal of the school asked them either to wear uniform and wear the deeksha mala over it or ask the parents to inform the school office if they wanted exception from the rule of uniform for more days. In short, the school management neither removed the deeksha dress nor denied permission to wear it, but asked the students to do it with proper information by their parents. Later the office staff called the parents to communicate the same. During the Hanuman Chalisa that evening, the above-mentioned students shared with other swamis what had happened in the school. Unfortunately, a group of people with vested interests circulated a false message saying that the students were forced to remove the saffron dress and deeksha mala in the, school misleading hundreds of swamis to vehemently protest against the school. This unfounded story spread like wildfire in the surroundings provoking a storm of protest from the swamis on the following day.

“Like Jesus, who was unjustly and
unreasonably beaten by the officials
(Jn 18:23), we do ask the offenders: If we
have done something wrong, prove it.
If not, why did you strike us?”

On Tuesday, 16th April, hundreds of furious swamis rushed to the school and unleashed a sudden and unprovoked attack on the school. Four sisters, of whom two were teachers of the same school and two visitors, were mercilessly insulted and chased out of the school amidst abusive slogans. The angry mob vandalized the school in every sense, breaking the glasses and destroying the computers. Moreover, the statue of Mother Theresa, who is venerated by millions of people across the globe, was pulled down and destroyed. The cruelest act of the perpetrators was to manhandle Fr. Jaimon Joseph MCBS, the manager of the school, who was also forcefully applied tilak on forehead with saffron shawl around shoulder. The violence was at its zenith when Fr. Jaimon Joseph, surrounded by numerous unruly swamis, was put under insurmountable pressure to recite Jai Shriram. It is a blatant violation of human rights and religious freedom. It is, in fact, an obvious attempt of forceful conversion! We take serious exception to this violation of human rights and strongly condemn this episode of violence against the peace-loving Christian community.

While the allegations raised against the school management still remain unproven, the havoc wreaked by the violent mob is visible in the cctv footage circulated in the social media. The entire school is under video surveillance and there is no shred of evidence to substantiate the allegations against the school. No case of parents contacting the school office for the permission to wear deeksha dress getting denied has happened. On the other hand, a lot of identifiable persons are seen in the video destroying the school, pulling down the statue and manhandling Fr. Jaimon Joseph. If at all there are shortcomings on the part of the management, a civilized society should approach the competent authority on it. What happened in Mother Theresa School made a mockery of the law-and-order system prevalent there. To claim that anybody can wear any sort of dress instead of uniform in the school without permission amounts to promoting absolute indiscipline and lawlessness. The rule of the uniform is respected in companies, hospitals, police department and military. It must be all the more respected in schools, where discipline and social responsibility are taught.
Education without discipline will help only to create a lawless society. As peace-loving and law-abiding citizens of the country, Christians in the area refrain from every act of retaliation and provocation. However, this meekness shall not be taken for weakness. We do appeal to the government and police authorities to look into this unfortunate incident and bring the perpetrators before the law. Inaction from the part of authorities will only serve to give a new impetus to other offenders in the future. Like Jesus, who was unjustly and unreasonably beaten by the officials (Jn 18:23), we do ask the offenders: If we have done something wrong, prove it. If not, why did you strike us?