Keralite nuns' arrest in Chhattisgarh: bipartisan protests roil Kerala for third consecutive day
The demonstrations over the arrest of sisters Preeta Mary and Vandana Francis of the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate (ASMI) order, hailing from Kannur and Angamaly respectively, also radiated out to Chhattisgarh.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) and United Democratic Front (UDF) delegations led by Lok Sabha members and top leaders from New Delhi protested outside the Durga Central prison, seeking permission to visit the imprisoned nuns and demanding justice.
Initially reluctant
Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader N.K. Premachandran, MP, who led the UDF delegation, told The Hindu that the prison authorities were initially reluctant to allow them access to the prisoners.
In stark contrast, he said, the authorities had no compunction in allowing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation headed by State general secretary Anoop Antony through. He said that the UDF MPs protested outside the prison gates, and were finally allowed in following the intervention of former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.
Mr. Premachandran, who spoke to the nuns, said the sisters were extremely distressed. 'Bajrang Dal activists mobbed them at the railway station, conducted a humiliating public trial and handed the nuns and their fellow travellers to the police. The sisters' entreaties that they were operating within the law fell on deaf ears,' he said.
The police denied entry to the LDF delegation headed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat citing prison timings.
Ms. Karat told reporters outside the jail that the nuns and their fellow passengers were travelling with the requisite papers and proper sanction. She termed the arrests a trespass on fundamental rights, secularism and the right to freedom of religion and movement.
Closer to home in Kerala, members of the clergy and laity protested in strength in Thrissur district against the 'extra-judicial arrest and harassment of the nuns' allegedly orchestrated by the Sangh Parivar affiliates.
Protest march
In Thiruvananthapuram, Vicar General of the Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram Father Eugene Periera said Church leaders, including Bishops and members of the laity, would gag their mouths and march in protest to the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday (July 30) evening from the Martyr's Square at Palayam. He termed the arrest an infringement on minority rights enshrined in the Constitution.
CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) State president Panakkad Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal, and Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan stated separately that Kerala would rise as one for the early release of the sisters and also for the protection of minority rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
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