On a fine Sunday morning, the faithful who gathered at the St Francis Xavier's Church in Kurichithanam, Kerala, heard their parish priest, Xavier Mammotil speaking at length about justice in the society and requested the faithful to pray for a family in the parish who has been denied justice for long. During the adoration services conducted in the Church, the parish priest offered prayers for this family. Being the spiritual head of the Church where the Suranelli case victim and family resides, he did his best to make the family comfortable. But few weeks later the world witnessed this priest and the Church as a whole being torn apart by the mainstream media and social media. Scathing comments flooded social networking sites against the Church like this tweet from @Vidyut: Church bans #Suryanelli rape victim. Clearly the message of love, etc is not more important than repressed morality and sexual paranoia.
How did the turnaround happen? The sixteen year old Suryanelli issue was back in focus on Suryanelli issue post Delhi rape. The clamour was for P. J. Kurians resignation, who has been accused by the girl one among the culprits. According to reports, Suryanelli girl’s father wanted to thank the parish priest for his continued support especially with the mention in the sermon about their family who was deprived of justice. On his visit it the parish priest asked him that it would be good if they stop coming to the Church till the issue settle down! This was the point of contention.
This fact reached the local news channels and naturally one of the National channels took this up and flashed the juicy news that ‘Church Bans Suryanelli Girl and Family!’ This was instantly picked across news channels with tickers running at will. The social media was quick to jump to conclusions making wild accusation against the Church giving scant regard for facts. Shiv Aroor, the deputy editor at Headlines Today tweeted: @ShivAroor: The Church in Kerala that has banned entry to the Suryanelli rape victim and her family, would do better to ban entry to its idiot priests.
While the Malayalam channels who instantly took the response of Suryanelli girls mom, clarified that the Church has always supported them and the suggestion not to come to the Church was said in a friendly manner by the parish priest! The case should have closed by then. But the national media continues the assault on the Church.
The question is, Why did the priest suggest the Suryanelli girls father to stop coming to the Church till the issue settles down?
First of all this was an advice by the parish priest and not a diktat. As the mother rightly recalls this was said by the priest in a friendly manner. Why did he say so? He might have wanted to make the family comfortable from the prying and inquisitive eyes of fellow parishioners. Period.
This was blown out of proportions in tune with the mainstream media strategy to malign the image of the Church. Indeed a classic case of how information can be twisted to suit the vested interests. Imaginations of the news editors ran wild and thus we have the expressions like ‘Family banned/restrained from the Church.’
The Church is not a perfect society. The news media has all right to seek clarification. But when truth shines likes bright sun, outrightly declaring it to be midnight is totally unacceptable. If media has balls let them take on Catholic Church face to face. Why back stab with twisted news reports?
As I arrived in Brisbane this morning, I read the following article on the NDTV websitehttp://www.ndtv.com/article/india/chintan-shivir-congress-leaders-debate-how-to-win-back-urban-voters-319505?pfrom=home-otherstories about the Congress party meeting to discuss how to win Urban votes.
An ambitious sanitation project for schools, Suchi@School, initiated by legislator P. Rajeev is nearing completion. More than 130 electronic toilets have been set up across 35 government and aided schools in Ernakulam district as part of the project.
The problem is wide spread but not glamours enough to be taken up by those of influence and authority.
“When visitors enquire about a toilet, they are often directed to far-off spots,” said Salim, a life guard on the beach. Though a toilet block has been constructed it is yet to be opened owing to scarcity of water, said sources.
Take any issue, particularly of development, politicians quickly scramble to either stall or get credit. If they won't get credit, they will stall it. There should be a rule to bar politicians from development projects. Kerala will grow at night, when the government and politicians are asleep or drunk.
Jose K Mani not invited for UPA's dinner. Muslim League's E Ahmed has been invited. The difference between the two parties? The League has two MPs to Kerala Congress M's one. Has the Kerala Congress (M) lost its utility to the UPA?
'Who am I ?' is an inspiring spiritual short film.Its a 5 minute conversation between two people,The question is who are they in real.
Camera and Direction- Latha Kurien Rajeev( Producer of Jayaram starrer,Shesham and National award winning movie Jalamarmaram,currently producing Indrajith starrer movie Up & Down which is directed by husband T.K Rajeev kumar and is to hit theaters this January) 'Who am I ' is a small video with a social inspiring message,that she directed and captured
Vayalar Ravi is a member of the union cabinet. He has held multiple portfolios including civil aviation. Currently he is the minister for overseas Indian affairs. He is currently in the Gulf. When asked by the media about what he is doing for about the hardships faced by Indians flying by Air India, he gets hostile and accuses the journalist of being a communist.
Repeatedly he states: "What do you want me to do? Tell me, what do you want me to do?"
Resign Mr. Ravi, resign. If you don't know what to do and you can't give a proper answer, save our tax money and sit at home.
If Kochi Metro was in Malapuram, it would have been completed by now
Kochi needs a metro. It has been approved a metro and some work has progressed but there seems to be a constant need for drama. An epic drama that could lead to more controversies, delays, scam allegations and an early obituary.
The main issue seems to be a trust deficit between all the stakeholders, leading to all kinds of allegations. If this is the case with the Metro, what are the chances for Air Kerala to take off?
Let's leave Air Kerala aside for now, I'm sure we will get plenty of time and reasons to write about that drama as it unfolds. The scenario now is that the only person everyone trusts is E Sredharan - no one else. He wants DRMC to do the work without bids. The state government seems to be dragging its feet, there have been many reasons pointed out which indicates that the government is keen for an international tender - which leads to allegations that politicians and middlemen are trying to get kick backs.
This saga also points out to a total lack of leadership and political will. The CM and his Railway minister will keep travelling to Delhi and back knocking the doors of the Delhi CM, PM, Urban Development Minister and others. It is very clear that those in Delhi are not keen on the project.
What is the point of having a congress government in the state and center, and eight ministers if they can't get the metro project on its tracks? Is this too much to ask? Perhaps Air Kerala should start with a domestic service between Delhi and Trivandrum for our CM and ministers to travel back and forth - good traffic and frequency expected.
We need a political party, a leader to take this issue by the horns and deal with it. Someone who will take complete responsibility and is not worried about his political future and who he will upset. Some one like the late Varghese Kurian. But we don't make people like that anymore.
If Kochi Metro was in Malapuram district, it would have been completed by now, only waiting for the green paint to dry.
I believe the foundation of every man's character starts from home, at least it was like that for me. 'Kids are watching' is a social awareness video issued in public interest.
It shows lives of two kids of the same age with their loving fathers and how the habits of their parents is starting to influence them in different ways at an young age.The foundation of every human behavior starts at home.
So each one of us must set an example worth following,for our coming generations because I and You are their first role models.
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