Frontline
July 1999
Special Report

Teaching school a lesson

Shiv Sainiks target Christian—run institutions in Mumbai for the fourth successive year, in an attempt to force admissions on school principals

Come June every year, for the past three years and the Shiv Sena, the big brother in the ruling alliance in
Maharashtra, flexes its muscles. This June was no exception. On June 26 this year, local Shiv Sainiks, including many women, physically assaulted a nun and priest from the Sacred Heart School, Worli, and damaged the furniture. The motive? The school’s stoic refusal to entertain the recommendatory letters of local Shiv Sainiks to secure admission for their favourites into the pre–primary sections of their schools.

Within the same week, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Sion and the Infant Jesus School, Jogeshwari (east) were also threatened. Finally, St. Anne’s School, Malad, was subjected to similar physical intimidation on July 3, when a group of Shiv Sainiks, ‘presented’ the schools’ principal, Father Francis Carvalho, with a list of 11 children that should be admitted. Needless to say, the skirmish occurred when they were politely refused.

Four schools threatened in seven days and what has been the police reaction? Arrests, registration of cases against erring Sainiks and prompt police protection in the case of the first school at Worli, thanks to the intervention of former police chief, Julio Ribeiro, an ex–student. It has been similarly swift in others. What has supplemented the police action, however, is an extremely prompt response from an outraged citizenry in at least one of the three areas of Mumbai where these threats have taken place.

Over 300 residents of Mumbai residing in Malad, many of whom are parents of students studying in St. Anne’s School, maintained a round-the–clock vigil for 36 hours last week to ward off further intimidation. "Presently, there is a certain amount of calm because of the positive role of the media in projecting the violence," Dolphy D’Souza, national secretary, All India Catholic Union, told Communalism Combat. D’Souza is also an active part of the local resistance in Malad.

"The archbishop’s clear and uncompromising stand has also helped. He has repeatedly made it clear that no admissions would be entertained under pressure and no intermediaries in the admission process would be encouraged." What has made the biggest difference in Malad is also the united resistance from parents of all communities who stood around the school in a round–the–clock vigil. Which parent would want their child’s school being the target of intimidation?"

The archbishop of Mumbai, Ivan Dias voiced the serious concern of the Catholic community of Mumbai to the chief minister, Narayan Rane, following the physical intimidation. In a signed statement, he said that "the priests and nuns have been selflessly serving society and catering to the education of young boys and girls, seventy per cent of whom are non–Christian". He formally drew the attention of the government, yet again, to the intimidatory and pressure tactics being indulged in by a "certain political group" (read Shiv Sena) that lives by the dictum, "might is right." Attempts at giving bribes and subjecting the local school authorities to all kinds of pressures have resulted in a Vigilance Cell being set up at the Archbishop’s house.

This year’s assaults are the continuation of a four–year–old stand-off between Catholic schools and the SS’ Shivshahi regime. The latter has been trying to use its political clout to have a say in the matter of admissions to the primary sections of these schools that offer quality education, while the former have been fighting undue political interference. Over the past few years several such attacks and intimidatory tactics have been indulged in all over Mumbai. The propaganda that accompanies the attacks is typical; bias towards Christian children in the matter of admissions or alleged inadequate representation of Maharashtrians on the staff. Repeatedly, school authorities have pointed out that over 70 per cent of the students studying in Catholic institutions are non–Christians and the staff in most local colleges predominantly hails from the state anyway.

In 1997, another school, the Conossa Convent at Mahim was pressurised by SS corporator, Prakash Ahire, for similarly refusing to capitulate to political pressure over admissions.

In April 1997, local Shiv Sainiks had forced the principal of the Devi Gauridutt Mittal College of Arts and Commerce in Malad, run by a Marwari trust, to give a written undertaking that henceforth as many as 80 per cent of the staff would be Maharashtrians only. The same year, they had also vowed to continue their targeting of institutions like the MD Shah Mahila College and TS Bafna College, both at Malad.

While the police response this time has been prompt, in the past the message has been to the contrary, allowing the writ of the law–breakers to go unchecked.


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