More a struggle gets protracted more it suffers in the hands
of mutineers than of the enemy. The American College struggle has become so.
Day by day it seems to lose its focus. The legal and political twists it takes,
add to further confusion. There does not seem to be a leader around. Ask a well
meaning faculty or student for opinion; you will be only greeted by a plastic
smile. Their exasperation is visible and cynicism deep. Even the front runners
are contended playing wait and watch game.
A comic addition to the whole movement is often provided by
self-appointed moralists, sentimental snobs and truth peddlers who by using the
virtual space tell their own stories. Failing to understand realpolitik, they
often personalize politics and politicize nostalgia and sentiment. For them, it
is a hobby. They are quite fond of personal importance and limelight. Though I
do not have reasons to quarrel with them, what irks me is their painting of particular
picture about American College. They somehow believe that the American College
is an unassailable fort which can be guarded by a few chivalrous knights. They
seldom go to war themselves but cry foul every time they see their knights in armour.
The recent controversy kicked up by the signing of an agreement
with the Moderator on 02.06.2012 is a case in point. The so called peace
initiative in my understanding was initially mooted by Mr. Isaac Mohan Lal,
Advocate and a good friend of the college and Dr. T. Chinnaraj Joseph Jaikumar,
former Principal & Secretary primarily to settle two important issues: 1.
When the issue of resuming of work by 55 Teaching Faculty (Management) and 39
Non-Teaching Staff (Management) could not be politically and legally resolved,
the option open was to think of a negotiated settlement. These were people who
were without their pay for 18 months. 2. There were more than 400 students who
had become victims because of the strife who needed immediate solution.
The document signed opens with the affirmation “The American College is a Christian Minority
Institution belonging to the Church of South India (Diocese of Madurai –
Ramnad). (Clause, 1). I myself was shocked to hear this first. But when I
read the document in its entirety and placed it in the political context of a
negotiated settlement, I honestly felt that there was no need to blow it out of
proportion and sensationalize the issue. Only Clause 2 and Clause 12 hold the
key. Clause 2 says “The College will be
managed and administered according to the Constitution and Bye-laws of The American
College, which shall be amended to cope up with the changing times” (I too
do not see anything wrong in the clause anticipating amendment as the
constitution has not lived up to the times by not even meeting certain
statutory requirements prescribed by the laws of the land. It requires changes
in this sense but not in the sense of defeating the original vision enshrined.)
Finally capping it all, Clause 12 says
“All the above terms and decisions which are unanimously agreed by the
signatories here under shall be implemented by the Principal from the
commencement of the academic year 2012-2013. All the above decisions will be
placed in the duly constituted College Governing Council.” The first clause
in my opinion is only of rhetorical value. It is totally nullified by Clause 2
and Clause 12. The document in total is legally nuanced and at the end of the
day has no value.
At this point, let us not lose sight of the real issue of 95
employees stranded without salary for 18 months. All of us the aided faculty
gleefully left them behind and resumed our work in Nov.2011. We started taking our
salary and claimed all compulsory savings.
But the management staff were left behind like ticketless travelers on a
railway platform waiting for a train that would never arrive. I do not
understand with what assurance they lived their life for the next 7 months. (I
will find another occasion for elaborating on their owes). After Justice Chandru’s
Judgment, seeking legal remedy for management staff became totally precarious.
When so many compromises were being made by a section of staff, in my opinion
there is nothing wrong in opening up a negotiated settlement. I will certainly
give credit to those who took the initiative and finally succeeded in getting
the 95 management employees back in to the college on 18.06.2012. The document
certainly is not a sale document transferring American College property to the
Diocese. We must certainly distinguish between a rhetoric and legal commitment.
A real fighter must have the ability to read not only the factuality
of a situation but also their strategic importance. After talking to the people
who attended the negotiation, I realized that without the rhetoric affirmation ‘American
College belongs to CSI’, nothing would have progressed across the table. The
price: all the 95 management staff would have been still be left stranded and
we would continue contributing our tithe
money to enable our poor brothers and sisters buy monthly grocery and of course in that process, wash
our guilt too.
In addressing this issue, what one must readily recognize is
the fact that Moderator Devakadatcham is no better than Bishop Asir when it
comes to defining the relationship of the church with American College. In
this, he is a true legatee of Asir. Maybe, he differs in his ways and means and
is truly good in many other aspects, compared to Bishop Asir. He is politically
more capable than Bishop Asir. The pluralists, non-denominationalists,
secularists, liberal Christians and sentimentalists must see this as a very hard
reality. The challenge the Moderator might throw on you is much more formidable
than what Bishop Asir could throw by his delinquent ways.
Secondly, let us not exhibit an ostrich like attitude burying
our heads under the sand and say “Beware! Beware! The Church is coming… Guards
of the Gates close them all.” In terms of realpolitik, the church is already
there well entrenched in our territory. The very fact that Davamani Christober
who violently threw away Dr. P. R. Anbudurai from his office on 10.12.2012 with
the help of goondas and police was
never at any point pulled up by venerable Moderator, demonstrates the attitude
of the Church. Legal or illegal, violent or peaceful, Church tells you that it is omnipotent. It wants you to obey. Worse, when Moderator Devakadatcham got a chance, he anointed the vandal
as the Principal. Everything within American College is now done by the Church coolly
in the name of Child Davamani.
Thirdly, the gain we made through the first round of peace
talk by getting in 95 stranded management staff should not screen the heaviest
of losses the college has suffered today by the intervention of the church.
More than the rhetoric “American College belongs to Church of South India”, the
damage came by way of Moderator arguing the case of Davamani. Not only did he
agree to take in those who were on the job on the date of Dr. Chinnaraj
Joseph’s exit but also all those who were appointed illegally by Mohan and
Davamani himself subsequent to Chinnaraj’s exit on 30.11.2010. Most of these ad hoc appointees are from the ranks of
Davamani’s relatives and caste men and from his family’s cronydom. So many who
acted as hit-men for Davamani will now be absorbed in the ranks of non-teaching
staff. The thoughtless overstaffing can be explained as follows: for every
teaching faculty we got back to work, Davamani managed to add 1.44 persons of
his personal choice. (The overstaffing in the management sector (Teaching)
should be about 60%). For every non-teaching staff we got back to work Davamani
managed to add 1.38 persons of his personal choice. (Here the overstaffing is
about 40%). Imagine the amount of financial ruin that awaits the college in another
few months. Less said better about the maintainability of academic standards,
efficiency, discipline and decorum. I think it is the severest of blows the
church could ever deliver on the body politic of the American College. It is
exactly here, the church has practically exercised its power by tearing into
pieces the fabric of administration which had been an unrivalled Christian
witness for 130 years. Minoritisation
is not exclusion. And institutionalization of mediocrity in the name of Christianization
is paradoxically un-Christian.
The price paid for addressing the pressing humanitarian issue
which in fact is a rights issue of employees is so high that it has become self
destructive. In this sense, no negotiator can take any pride in what they have
done. The Moderator in order to muffle the arguments seems to have said,
“Whether a child is legitimate or illegitimate, it is only a child. Every child
needs to be cared for.” We can understand the overwhelming Christian concern
and sentiment expressed through this statement. After all American College is
not a Children’s Home. Moreover, why should Moderator protect and patronize
producers of illegitimate children?
Concluding, I would
say that no more the borders of the college are safe. There are several
breaches, encroachments and occupations. Wounded
knights and traitor knights
cannot do much. Neither can kings, philosophers and sentimentalists do
stargazing anymore. Notwithstanding the good that has happened by way of
getting back our friends to work, we can only say that we have struck a very
weak bargain. What did weaken our bargain?
(To be continued)
Prophet
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