Nuns’ bail based on merit, not external intervention, says Minister Sivankutty; V. Muraleedharan contrasts religious freedom in India with global Christian persecution

General Education Minister V. Sivankutty has said that the bail received by the two Keralite nuns, who were held in judicial remand in Chhattisgarh on “fake allegations” of human trafficking and forced conversion, should not be misconstrued as the result of any external intervention.

The court granted them bail after understanding the facts of the case. It was not due to assistance from anyone, as some falsely claim, he added.

Mr. Sivankutty was inaugurating a civic reception organised in honour of Catholicos Mor Baselios Joseph I, head of the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, at the St. Peter’s Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Simhasana Cathedral here on Sunday.

While reiterating the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s unwavering support to the Jacobite Church for all just causes, the Minister assured that instances of religious persecution would never occur in Kerala. “No community, including Christians, will be subjected to such harassment here. But, how many other States in the country can claim to uphold such liberty for believers of various faiths? It is time people realise this reality.”

‘Christians persecuted all over’

However, former Union Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader V. Muraleedharan drew attention to the widespread persecution of Christians across the world, contrasting it with the relative religious freedom enjoyed in India.

He cited instances of violence targeting Christians in countries such as Syria and Iraq to emphasise the gravity of the global situation. “Christians are persecuted in many of such places. Priests from those regions could tell us what State-sponsored repression of minorities looks like,” he remarked.

Mr. Muraleedharan also referred to a recent terror attack on a church at Damascus that left nearly 25 people dead, and the civil war that had engulfed Syria which forced even the Patriarch of Antioch and the supreme head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church, Ignatius Aphrem II, to cut short his visit to India last year.

“In India, whether in Thiruvananthapuram or elsewhere, no one needs to fear getting shot at or dying in explosions while attending such programmes. The situation here is vastly different,” he asserted.

Catholicos Mor Baselios Joseph I called for a lasting solution with the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.

Kuriakose Mar Theophilos, Resident Metropolitan, Malankara Syrian Orthodox Theological Seminary, presided over the function.

Antony Raju, MLA, Metropolitan Archbishop Mar Thomas Tharayil of Syro Malabar Archeparchy of Changanassery, Bishop Antony Mar Silvanios of the Major Archiepiscopal Curia of Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, Bishop Mathews Mor Silvanus of the Thiruvananthapuram Diocese of Believers Eastern Church, former Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson and church vicar Alexander Thomas also spoke.