Bishop Pamplany comes under under fire from Sathyadeepam
The Hindu
Thalassery Bishop Joseph Pamplany has come under fire from Sathyadeepam for ‘oversimplifying’ the problems of farmers
Thalassery Bishop Joseph Pamplany has come under fire from Sathyadeepam for ‘oversimplifying’ the problems of farmers and confining the term farmers to the narrow definition of rubber farmers.
Once considered the mouthpiece of the Catholic Church in Kerala and now the mouthpiece of the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese, Sathydeepam editorial for March 29 issue took exception to the Bishop’s statement and described it as having done more harm than good to the cause of farmers.
Bishop Pamplany, addressing the conclusion of a farmers’ meet at Alakode in Kannur district last week, said if the natural rubber price went up to ₹300 a kg, farmers would support the Union government. The Sathyadeepam editorial mocked the Bishop’s statement by saying that if the price of rubber went up to ₹300, migrant farmers would help assuage the Central government regrets of not having a Member of Parliament from Kerala to support it.
The editorial, titled ‘A failed statement’, said the problems of farmers had been oversimplified by the Bishop even as it agreed with the Bishop’s view that political response was in order to realise one’s rights. Protests that turned into votes too had its place in a democracy, it said.
But the Bishop’s statement tended to define farmers as rubber farmers. He also appeared to be saying that once rubber prices touched ₹300 a kg, all of farmers’ problems would be solved. These statements failed miserably to represent the problems of the farmers, the editorial said. The Bishop’s statement also mercilessly rejected the problems faced by farmers in other geographical areas such as Idukki and Kuttanad.
The Bishop appeared to believe that by electing a Bharatiya Janata Party MP from the hills would help solve all the problems even as the government had done little over the past nine years to help the farmers suffering the impact of the ASEAN free trade agreement, the editorial said. It also questioned the brains which forgot the problems ranging from man-animal conflicts, buffer zone, and an unhelpful support price regime.
It also said that only the politics of the Bishop’s statement was being discussed now and it was high time that it was withdrawn. The bishop had also, through his statement, cancelled the efforts of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council and Synods of bishops to help farmers and the statement needed to be corrected.
In 2021, five women from Mayithara, four of them MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) workers, found a common ground in their desire to create a sustainable livelihood by growing vegetables. Rajamma M., Mary Varkey, Valsala L., Elisho S., and Praseeda Sumesh, aged between 70 and 39, pooled their savings, rented a piece of land and began their collective vegetable farming journey under the Deepam Krishi group.