MALAPPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday severely criticised Orthodox faction, saying its representatives did not cooperate with the state government to resolve the issues between them and Jacobite faction under the Malankara Church. He was reacting to a request from Orthodox Malabar diocese secretary Fr Thomas Kurian Thazhayil that the state government should take initiatives to ensure that the churches granted to them by the Supreme Court in its 2017 verdict are handed over to the faction.
Fr Thazhayil put forth the demand during a meeting held in Malappuram as part of the chief minister’s ‘Kerala Paryadanam’ on Monday. The chief minister also said the state government did everything in its capacity to end the dispute between the factions.Reacting to this, Fr Thazhayil said the chief minister’s response to his request was inappropriate. “When I requested him to implement the court order, the chief minister said something unrelated. He said the Orthodox faction did not cooperate with the cabinet sub-committee appointed to amicably end the issues between the Orthodox and Jacobite factions,” he said.
Responding to Fr Thazhayil, Pinarayi further said, “During the row between the factions, the situation of even disrespecting the bodies of the dead was raised. Then, the state government had to bring in an ordinance to permit burial rituals of Jacobites in their parish cemeteries.”
Thazhayil said the chief minister should not have said that the Orthodox faction didn’t cooperate with the suggestion of holding direct talks with the Jacobite faction. “After the court order, there is no option of conciliation talks. The only option is to implement the court order. The state government should have made the Jacobite faction understand that the court verdict has to be implemented. The implementation of the court order is being delayed citing conciliation talks with vested interests,” Fr Thazhayil added.