'All those who participated in the agitation were branded as anti-nationals.'
The Vizhinjam International Seaport in Thiruvananthapuram is a port owned by the Government of Kerala and is being built by Adani Vizhinjam Ports Private Ltd, a subsidiary of Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd.
The agreement is that the port will be operated by the Adani Group for 40 years.
When the construction started in December 2015, it was expected to complete the first phase by December 2019 but the project got delayed because of the protests by the fishing community under the leadership of the Catholic archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram.
The protest that began on July 20, 2022 outside the state secretariat ended on the 6th of December after the Vizhinjam protest committee and Kerala chief minister held talks.
A few days before polling in Kerala, in a pastoral letter read out in all churches, Archbishop Thomas J Netto said the church was struggling to meet its routine expenses after the church accounts were frozen because of the protest against the seaport in 2022.
Father Eugene H Pereira, Vicar General, the Archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram, who was in the forefront of the agitation against the Adani group, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier why the state and central governments are against the church, and why the church accounts are frozen.
Do you feel the church and the fishing community are being punished both by the state and the Centre for protesting against the Adani port at Vizhinjam?
You have to understand why the fishing community of this area decided to protest against the port.
It was because the livelihood of more than 300 families were affected for about 3-4 years and nothing went beyond the many talks we had with the authorities.
The government was not ready to move an inch from its tough stand.
People remained quiet in the early days because of the pandemic.
You withdrew the agitation in December 2022 saying it was only temporary, but you didn't resume the protest.
And the building of the port has been going on ever since...
We stopped the agitation at that time because they tried to divide the community on religious lines. There were also concrete efforts from their side to create hostility and tension among the people.
You mean by the government?
Yes. By the state government. They wanted to create a horrifying situation, but we didn't want them to be successful in their efforts to divide the agitating community.
That was the reason why we decided to temporarily withdraw the agitation.
Why I am talking about an incident that happened in 2022 is because I want to highlight what the state and the central governments were up to from the beginning.
They just wanted to stop us from protesting against the Adani group.
The state government went to the extent of using the RTO to stop our protest. RTO officials warned us that if any vehicle came to the state capital with people from the nearby coastal regions, it would be booked.
Have you ever heard of the RTO being used to stop protests by people?
From the beginning, the government had no intention to solve the problems of the people but make the agitation a failure.
They filed cases against all those who came to support the agitation including those in the church.
And all those who participated in the agitation were branded as anti-nationals.
When were the bank accounts of the church frozen?
While the Kerala government used the state police to silence us and make us powerless, the Centre used other means.
We were unexpectedly told on the 11th of February 2023 that the FCRA (Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act) licence of the Trivandrum Social Service Society and the archdiocese would not be renewed.
The FCRA license was valid till March 2023, and we had already begun the renewal proceedings.
But we received a letter from the home ministry in February itself that we would not be able to renew it.
Did they say it was because of the Vizhinjam agitation?
Yes. We were given a Speaking Order which said, because we had used the funds for the agitation that our FCRA was not renewed.
You should understand that they had not conducted any enquiry before coming to such a conclusion.
So, we filed a revision petition saying the contribution was never used for the agitation against the port.
We had not used a single paisa on any agitation; we use the contributions only on the healthcare of the fishing community, the women and children.
The Church also spends around Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) every year on priest training programmes, caring for the retired clergy, etc.
When we sent the revision petition, we at the Thiruvananthapuram Social Service Society did not get any reply.
But the Archdiocese got a reply accusing that we participated in the agitation, and that was why the license was denied.
If you remember, the state government had filed cases against 15 priests during the agitation.
We had requested the state government to remove from the chargesheet the names of the priests including the bishops who were not part of the agitation at all.
As per the request by the chief minister, in December 2023 itself, we had submitted the list of the church officials to the government authorities.
But nothing was done till the elections were declared in 2024.
While the state government used the police to suppress us, the central government harassed us by not renewing the FCRA license.
Both Aniyan Bava and Chettan Bava (younger brother and elder brother) are hand in hand in these activities.
Who is the younger brother and who is the elder brother?
Younger brother is our state government and the elder brother, of course is the central government.
The strategy of both is silencing all those who speak. But we were following all democratic norms.
They use all means to suppress the democratic voices of the labour class.
You have a Communist government in Kerala. Is it not strange that such a government is suppressing the voices of the working class to support the number one capitalist in India?
Yes, it is strange! They speak in loud voice against capitalists in front of Raj Bhavan. But they actually support the Blue Economy.
Take, for example, the Adani port, the Sagarmala project, the mining projects in the Western Ghats..
Have you been relying on foreign contributions for your activities?
We reply on foreign contributions for all the social welfare activities we have been doing through the Social Service Society, Thiruvananthapuram.
When it stopped, we had to slow down our activities. We tried to gather donations locally to continue with whatever we have been doing.
But we were not in a position to take up any new projects.
Now, on the 21st of April, the Archbishop wrote a letter to be read out in all the churches explaining the tough financial situation because of the freezing of our accounts and the need to collect funds to continue with our activities.
How will this be reflected in the parliamentary election? Kerala went to polls on the 26th...
There is a common feeling among the coastal community that no party worked for the cause of the fishing community in an honest manner.
You mean the state and the Centre?
Yes. They joined hands to suppress our agitation.
Shashi Tharoor as the MP also supported building the port...
Yes, he supported the port.
The fishing community of the area is unhappy with the stand taken by Tharoor.
They are also against the way they were confronted by the state and central governments.
When some areas decided against boycotting the polls, we made them realise that what was needed was not a boycott but A conscience vote.
That's why we organised a Meet the Candidate programme of both the Thiruvananthapuram and Attingal candidates so that people could decide who to vote for after hearing them. We also submitted a note with 18 demands.
We wanted people to be part of the democratic process in a responsible manner, and not boycott the process.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
