Kochi: The controversy surrounding Education Minister V. Sivankutty’s recent remarks on the appointment of disabled persons in aided schools is escalating into a full-blown crisis, with both the Syro-Malabar Church and the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Conference (KCBC) strongly condemning his statement and demanding accountability.
What began as protests led by affected teachers and church bodies has now gained wider momentum after the KCBC publicly joined the Syro-Malabar Church in rejecting the Minister’s position. Critics say Sivankutty’s statement reflects a lack of understanding of the plight of disabled staff who have been working in aided schools for years without receiving salaries, despite a favorable Supreme Court ruling.
Father Antony Arackal, Secretary of the KCBC Education Commission, called the Minister’s words “insulting” and “a clear sign of government incompetence.”
“Teachers who have been working for five years without salary are only voicing their legitimate concerns. This is not a politically motivated agitation. To say that workers have no wages under the Left government is deeply insulting to them,” Fr. Arackal said.
Fr. Arackal stressed that the problem lies not with the teachers or the church, but with the state’s inability to implement the court verdict that had recognized the rights of disabled workers in aided institutions.
“The Minister says there is no need for dismissal. But who has been dismissed? Nobody. These teachers are only asking for what is rightfully theirs. It is equally insulting to claim that the government does not have a proper plan even after the Supreme Court’s verdict,” he remarked.
While the government has dismissed the church’s intervention as politically motivated, the KCBC rejected that argument outright.
“When they say this is politically motivated, they must first understand the ground reality. This is not about politics. It is about justice for disabled teachers. We are not telling Christians to avoid their politics; it is the government that is playing politics with the issue. Everyone knows the truth, except those who refuse to see it,” Fr. Arackal clarified.
Meanwhile, protests by disabled teachers and their supporters continue to intensify across the state, demanding the government take immediate action to regularize their appointments and release pending salaries. With both the Syro-Malabar Church and the KCBC now pressing the government, the issue has taken on wider social and moral dimensions, potentially creating a new fault line between the ruling Left and Kerala’s Christian community.
As the standoff deepens, all eyes are on whether Minister Sivankutty and the Kerala government will revise their stance or allow the dispute to escalate further into a major political and social controversy.