Woes of Sister Lucy Kalappura: Letters to The Editor

I am dejected as I write this letter of the travails of Sister Lucy, the Catholic nun, who was expelled from a Christian Seminary in 2019 on the charge of indiscipline after she had spoken out against rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal. The story relates to the scandalous rape of another nun in which bishop Franco is the lone accused. From 2018 Sister Lucy was leading the protest seeking justice for the rape-victim nun against the powerful Christian lobby that is getting tacit backing of the CPM-led Left Democratic Front Government in Kerala. Sister Lucy is presently fighting all by herself in the court against her eviction from a convent in Mananthawady, Wayanad. The Vatican has also rejected her appeal against eviction. The lawyers' lobby declined to plead her case and without any help from any quarter, she has been left in the lurch. She has been forced to plead her case in the Kerala High Court as her lawyer withdrew from the case for her inability to pay fees. In God's land, as Kerala is known, as well the ruling CPM being the Party of Sarva Hara (deprived and destitute), all have turned a blind eye to the rape victim and lone crusader Sister Lucy brazenly for vote bank politics. If the LDF Government was empathetic to the women issues then support of the Kerala Legal Aid Cell could have been extended to Lucy. The secular cabal of intellectuals and human rights watch groups and pseudo-secular political parties besides the brother-sister duo of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadera are mysteriously silent on the plight of the rape victim as well as Sister Lucy. Rahul Gandhi, who is the MP from the Wayanad constituency, the place of incident, and a tweeter buff dares not to post any tweeter message in protest against injustice to the women for fear of losing the Christian votes. Would all these characters have maintained the same silence had such incidents occurred in a BJP-ruled state?!

Pannalal Dey,

Guwahati.

An appeal to TU

Tezpur University is one of the best higher educational institutions in the country, especially from the northeast region. As a resident of Tezpur, I feel very proud and lucky to have it in our hometown. The establishment of Tezpur University is considered to be one of the outcomes of the Assam Accord. Then-Prime Minister of India, P. V. Narasimha Rao, chaired the opening of the university in 1994. It is good news for the whole of the people of Assam that the main entrance gate of the university is named 'Jyoti Toran' in memory of Rupkonwar Jyotiprashad Agarwala and the Central auditorium is in memory of Kalaguru Bishnuprasad Rava, the two doyens of Assamese culture and literature.

It has a notable central library with a huge collection of books and other reading materials called Central Library, Tezpur University. As a youngster of Tezpur, I very often feel that if the university authority considers renaming the library as Xahitya Kandari Padmanath Gohain Baruah Library would have been another remarkable place of the university as he was the first president of Axam Xahitya Xabha and a great crusader of Assamese language and literature from Tezpur.

So, I want to draw the attention of the authority of the university through your esteemed daily that they may take some steps toward it.

Aditya Ankur Nath,

Tezpur.

Common entrance tests

The Centre has decided that it will not go ahead with the common entrance tests to the graduate and postgraduate courses. The selection will be done on a merit basis. The move is welcomed by all but the move will come in between the dreams of Assamese students. It is seen that students from CBSE and ICSE courses shine with near-perfect scores and our students from the Assam board do not even stand a chance. There are also even cases when our rank holders have to console themselves with evening batches of prestigious colleges. Now that the entrance examination are stalled for this year owing to the pandemic situation and the selection will be done on a merit basis, our state board evaluators should keep all these things on the table before preparing the result.

Noopur Baruah,

Tezpur.

Of marriage

They say marriage is the 'ultimate merit badge' and the symbol of a successful relationship. People view marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. Undeniably, relationships and the concept of marriage are evolving due to modern technology's prominent role in current dating trends. The concept of marriage and how we define it have, no doubt, drastically changed over time. As the American author Stephen King rightly said, 'Time takes it all whether you want it or not, people have become more accepting and support the evolution of marriage. Today we live in a world where gay marriage has been legalized and accepted.

A century or two ago, nobody expected much personal happiness from marriage and family life. Now, marriage, like other decisions we make, is all about ourselves. Marriage is no longer a building block of adulthood, but the capstone. However, many contend that modern relationships remain fundamentally the same as they were in prior generations. The concept of marriage may have changed, but its importance in society has persisted.

Dipen Gogoi,

Teok, Jorhat.