“Save American College” has come to stay as our
slogan. Slogans are war-cries and are deeply emotive. They mobilize a lot of
energy for immediate attack. They are symbols that simplify otherwise complex
justification for action. They easily define a target or ‘other’ an enemy. On
the negative side, slogans are very partisan. They remove the element of
reflexivity in our thought and anaesthetize our senses against our own
mistakes. Slogans are short-lived and easily become relics. Thus they make a
mockery of the original vision. It is imperative therefore that in fighting for
a cause, we often undertake reality checks so that our sloganeering does not
make us false prophets and hypocrites.
When Bishop Asir and his cronies made a diabolic
attempt to take over the college beginning April 2008, he justified his actions
in the name of the Church. With wailing and breast-beating he said, “Principal
Chinnaraj is taking the college away from the Church”. Like a medieval crusader
he launched violent physical attacks, rioted inside the campus, foisted false
cases, got the Principal dismissed through a fake council and in this process
abused maximum, the process of law and law courts. Though the Church had its
own axe to grind, Bishop Asir did everything primarily for personal gain and
aggrandizement. He cunningly concealed his personal motives behind the voice of
the Church. He used the resources of the Church and its authority for muzzling
down anyone who came in his way. Finally, he shamelessly gifted away the
college to his son-in-law. And he was gone by February 2012.
But the problem lingers. The most frequently asked
question now is that why the much weakened son-in-law Davamani who is illegally
occupying the chair of the Principal of the American College is not able to be
removed. If we must answer this query, we need to tell a story that has two
sides. First, legal or illegal, Bishop Asir managed to give the kiss of life to
an old grudge that was lying dormant in the heart of the Church for long. It is
nothing but the unfinished task of appropriating and assimilating into its fold
all those autonomous institutions of Christian Higher Education founded by Missionaries
prior to the formation of CSI in 1948. Moderator Deivakadatcham is sharply
aware of this now and is thankful to the departed brother Bishop for handing
him over a noble cause. However civil and subtle, Moderator Kadatcham is also a
crusader. It is not the love he has for Davamani but the good excuse he finds
in him for the Church makes him openly support him. No wonder he said “Davamani
obeys like a child”. Davamani survives. We shall return to this new crusade of
the Church later.
We will now narrate the other side of the story, how
‘Save American College’ movement lost so much of its cutting edge in general
and bargaining power in particular with the new crusader, Moderator
Deivakadatcham. The slogan has been so romanticized and idealized that it looks
as if every other soul in American College is committed to liberal Christian
values, inclusiveness of religion and caste and autonomy of the College from
the Church. This is far from reality. There are many internal enemies to the
cause whom we have handled soft so far, for the sake of general unity.
When I think of this plight, what comes to my mind is the
story of the Trojan Horse, a popular Greek myth which all of us know. I want to
recollect it here for you again from Homer’s Odyssey. The Greeks were fighting
the battle hardy Trojans for almost ten years. Though the Greeks won many
battles, they could not take the well fortified city of Troy which was their
ultimate aim. Weary of the battles, they finally derived a clever strategy.
Taking advantage of Trojan veneration for the horse, they played a trick. They
built a huge wooden horse with a big hollow in its belly. They packed the belly
with lethal fighters captained by Odysseus.
The entire Greek force left the scene of battle faking a retreat but leaving
the wooden horse and a Greek guard by name Sinon. When Trojans came opening the
gates of the fort, they saw the horse and Sinon. Sinon wailed and cried and said that the
Greeks had mercilessly left him behind with the order to guard the horse and
tell the Trojans that they had left the wooden horse as an offering to the
Trojan goddess Athena praying for atonement. Believing that, the Trojans took
the horse and Sinon into the city. In the night, when the Trojans were asleep,
Sinon opened the belly of the horse and the Greeks came out and slew the
Trojans and opened the gates of the fort for the Greek forces. Trojans lost.
The phrase Trojan Horse has come to stay with us now.
It refers to a person or an element that weakens an organization covertly from
within especially in collusion with or under the instruction of an enemy.
Whenever I think of the predicament of American College, interestingly it is
not one Trojan Horse, but several Trojan Horses that come to my mind. These are
faculty leaders who when in open ostentatiously make tall claims about the
independence and autonomy of the college. But in reality, they by deceit search
for, or hold roots, in the nasty Church politics. (Mind you, I make a clear
distinction between the true involvement in the Church and the quest for power
within the Church which is unchristian). The levers of power these people gain
in the church, they use to seek positions in the college. Some of these people
only colluded with Bishop Asir and shocked the academic fraternity through
their betrayals.
When Vice-Principal George Selvakumar defected
overnight, locked up the Principal’s room and illegally declared himself to be
the principal in a military-style coup on the fateful April 12, 2008, he did it
in the name of the College Constitution and ‘save the college from Devil
Chinnaraj’. Another one from the same clan swore on the MUTA floor that he
would be the first person to lock the gate against Bishop Asir and go on
fasting in protest against any attempted takeover. Ironically however this
Trojan Horse, on the night of April 19, 2008, brought in its belly a pack of
violent goons armed with sticks and clubs who rioted inside the campus before
the ban order was promulgated by the police. He was later rewarded with the
second-in-command position by the regime which was in illegal occupation of the
College for about a year. Now retired, he is happy using the label of his
former position as prefix and suffix with his name. (Retirement syndrome).
The worst Trojan Horse tragedy is the most recent one.
It unfortunately involved a leader chosen by the will of the struggling
faculty; a rising star unlike the previous one who was to show a new horizon
for the college; a victim of treachery as he claimed to be, was always boastful
of his baptism by fire. The magical power
of the Moderator however was so great. Like Karnan
of Mahabharatha who gifted away to
Lord Indra his in-born armour and
ear-rings, our fire-born leader too gifted away his armour to the Moderator. He made a secret covenant with him
that he would never make his claim to the Principal ship in contestation with
Davamani, the anointed one by the Church. Neither would he hold the ‘rival
Council Meeting’. Of course each one has his own style of playing Trojan Horse
in the College. No wonder the College is weak before the Church.
Anyway, I want the readers to understand an important
truth. ‘Christian Leadership’ is totally different from ‘leadership in Church
Politics’.
What does then ‘Save American College’ mean for us today?
(To be
continued).
Prophet
1 comment:
Wonderful. Well done. You are correct. VS
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