Secularism is at Stake

Despite the pressure mounting on it from various quarters, the management of the Catholic Church-run Newman College in Kerala's Thodupuzha is refusing to revoke its decision to sack Prof TJ Joseph for preparing a question paper that allegedly 'hurt' the sentiments of Muslims and for which he was ferociously attacked by belligerent Islamists who chopped off his right hand. It seems the church, founded on the principles of compassion that it claims Jesus Christ professed, refuses to attach importance to the sufferings of a teacher who has been maimed for the rest of his life by those emulating the brutal and barbaric Taliban in the name of upholding Islam. The management, which had taken the decision to sack Prof Joseph presumably to avoid any conflict with the Muslim community, has so far spurned all requests to reinstate him in service. In sharp contrast to the church-run institution's strange obduracy, college teachers across Kerala have launched an indefinite agitation demanding that Prof Joseph must be given back his job. Noted intellectuals have also appealed to the church not to further penalise the victim of Islamist terror. Prof Joseph has appealed to the management through a letter to be "humane" towards him. Mahatma Gandhi University, to which the college is affiliated, has termed the dismissal as illegal and instructed the management to withdraw its order. State Education Minister MA Baby has backed that decision and conveyed his view, firmly and unambiguously, to the management, asking it to revoke its decision. 

However, all these interventions have so far failed in forcing the management to change its position. It is insisting that it will revoke its decision only if the Muslim community "pardons" the professor: What it means is that mullahs and fanatics affiliated to Islamist organisations like the PFI should step forward to plead the professor's case. This is not going to ever happen, and the management knows it very well. In any event, mullahs and their ilk do not represent the Muslim community. So why should their sanction be needed at all? The professor is now thinking of approaching the courts for justice, but a judgement will take a long time and till then he will be without a job, left to fend for himself, punished and humiliated for no reason, disowned and discarded by his college simply because the management does not have the courage to stand up to clone of the criminal Taliban. A solution lies in the Government stepping in and telling the recalcitrant college in clear terms that it must revoke the decision to sack Prof Joseph or face the consequences. Let Mahatma Gandhi University withdraw recognition to Newman College and force its closure. Kerala — and India — can do without such institutions that neither live by values nor impart any to their students.