By Sanal Edamaruku
Out of the blue, back in 2020, a sensational report appeared in some Kerala media. It spoke about a red corner notice issued by the Interpol against me. Interpol red corner notices are meant to locate the whereabouts of missing or absconding offenders or suspects. But there are no secrets about my whereabouts. I live in Finland and I am publicly very visible: speaking in meetings and on televisions, organizing international conferences.
Why would suddenly Government of India want to know through an Interpol Red Notice in which country and where I live?
When this report appeared in some Kerala based newspapers in 2020, it was almost eight years have passed since I left India following the Mumbai blasphemy charges in 2012 and the subsequent security threats against me. I know that 27 blasphemy complaints were filed against me after the controversial TV debate with the representatives of the Church. At least two of them were registered. When the blasphemy cases come for trial, I will fight against that and try to end the notorious blasphemy law in India.
When I was still in India, the Intelligence officers warned me that there was a serious danger for my life and advised me to be very careful and even gave me some practical advice.
One day before I left for Europe in June 2012, I visited the North Block office of the State Minister of Home and informed about my plans to travel. The private secretary to the minister telephoned the police commissioners of Delhi and Mumbai in my presence if there was any restrictions for me to travel abroad. Both the police commissioners of Delhi and Mumbai informed the Private Secretary of the State Home Minister of India that there was no restrictions on my traveling abroad. Later I decided to stay on in Finland, considering the security threats in India. I did not apply for political asylum; but accepted a teaching job, mainly to give lectures to the UNESCO affiliated university departments and international schools. Once that contract was over, I began a publishing company in Finland, in continuation of my publishing ventures in India.
I never visited India since 2012, since I moved to Finland. I knew that my life would be in danger if I returned to India.
Why the Catholic Church wants me back in India?
It was not difficult to see who was behind this well-orchestrated attack against me. If there was still any doubt, an official statement from the Catholic Church appeared on the web site of the Archdiocese of Bombay to make it clear. Archbishop Cardinal Oswald Gracias - who is none less than the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India - demanded my apology in exchange for the withdrawal of FIRs and cases against me.
My reply was simple and clear. I wrote: "I am convinced about what I spoke and can prove it. I can understand that you might be inspired by the stories of Inquisition and Witch-Hunting in the middle ages. We live in the 21st century. There are courageous people who would defend the right to speak what they are convinced about, even if stakes are invoked against them. I am one amongst them. Even if you bring all torture machines from medieval times, I would not apologise nor succumb to any pressures."
I announced this during my TAM speech in Las Vegas in 2013, "You can bring all the torture machines that you used against the heretics from the medieval times and try to apply on me - you may hear screams - but you will not extract an apology from me." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKgOSDgUVks)
Obviously my response was not taken kindly by the Catholic church. Soon I received warnings that there could be attempts on my life.
In 2014, when my mother was ailing and dying, a representative on the Catholic church contacted me and suggested if I wanted to come to India to see my mother, they would agree for a truce for some days, and would not trouble me when I visit India. A "small" condition I should fulfil for that - I should apologise to the archbishop; it could be kept secret, and would not be published. I did not want a second minute to reject this "truce" for my apology. I did not visit India in 2014. My mother passed away without seeing me.
Following this, in 2014, a rationalist working in the Kerala state government offered to donate occasionally to support the fund-raising efforts for the rationalist activities in India, and started donating intermittently over a period of three years, and I gladly welcomed that. To my surprise, she applied for a job in Rationalist International in 2017. She wanted to quit the Kerala government job and join Rationalist International. Following an interview, she was selected and the job appointment letter was sent to her, and she acknowledged receiving it. Suddenly reports appeared in some online publications close to the Catholic church that I defrauded her - that her donations were for a job, and I did not offer her job. A case was registered in a remote district in Kerala without taking my statement, and summons were sent to a Kerala address where nobody lived. For not responding to court summons, an arrest warrant was issued as well. My only remedy was to approach the higher courts seeking an interference.
The whole drama sounded like a Kafka novel. Interestingly, I got calls from a representative of the church that the legal complications in India could all be settled, if I apologised to the church and returned to India. As usual, I refused.
Following this, in 2020 news reports appeared in some Kerala newspapers that Interpol had issued a Red Corner notice to locate and arrest me. For what? For a case which was filed in 2018 in a local court in Kerala and base of the charge was based on a complaint of a job applicant!
I enquired with Interpol head quarters in France, and found that there was no Red Corner notice. They also explained that Red Corner notices can be checked on their web site with one's name. I searched myself, and could not find one. The news that appeared in some Kerala papers in 2020 were fake, and totally baseless.
Mumbai blasphemy case
In early March 2012, after my investigations brought to light that the source of the "holy water" dripping from the feet of a Jesus Christ statue in Mumbai was a blocked toilet drainage pipe, my life changed dramatically.
During my TV interview on the "dripping crucifix" in prime time, Mumbai bishop Angelo Gracias joined the discussion. Once he realised that his arguments were not convincing and not countering my positions, he abruptly left the program.
Once the program was over, I realised that I could not leave the TV studio as a group of men was waiting outside with beating sticks and cricket bats. The TV studio staff explained to me that they had been brought in vans after the bishop angrily left the TV debate. They were identified as professional thugs.
Mob attacks and lynchings are not uncommon in India. I smelled the danger. I had dinner with the head of the TV channel in his room, rested for some time, and checked again. The thugs were still waiting for me outside. Police were called; but there was no response.
Four hours later, the back gate was forced open for me to drive away so that I could escape the thugs at the front gate. In some hours I flew to my home in New Delhi.
I read reports the next days that some 27 complaints in different police stations were filed against me by different Catholic groups alleging that I hurt their religious sentiments.
There is an old British law, still valid in modern India, that was invoked against me by these groups. Two or three police stations took the complaint and FIRs were registered, media reported.
Three months in hiding
After the dramatic incidents in Mumbai, I was advised to move away from my home and live in different safe places without disclosing my whereabouts. From my different hiding locations, I contacted Indian and International media and talked about the situation. I wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh explaining the situation and requesting his interference. Also, I wrote to the Home Minister and Chief Minister of the State of Maharashtra where the Mumbai blasphemy case against me was registered Indian Rationalist Association set up a "Sanal Edamaruku Defence Fund" to support me. As the anticipatory bail petitions filed on my behalf by eminent lawyers in Delhi and Mumbai were turned down, I decided to stand trial. If the Mumbai blasphemy case should come to court at all, my lawyers were authorised to fight the case. Nothing happened. But after three months, threats for my security mounted. Rationalist, freethought, humanist, and skeptic organisations in several countries offered to help me get out of India. I informed the Home Minister's office, and the police commissioners of Delhi and Mumbai and flew to Finland.
Thanks to moral as well as generous financial support of friends and supporters in Finland, India, and other countries, I have fast been able to build up a new base, re-establish Rationalist International, and have ever since continued my fight against obscurantism with even more vigour.
It is no secret that the hands of the Catholic church are very long. They may go to any extent with their direct or indirect methods to silence their critics.
Of course, my findings in Mumbai were quite uncomfortable for them, as they did not only spoil the blossoming of a new pilgrimage site but also showed the Catholic miracle factory in a poor and ridiculous light. That is a sensitive point, and I had hit it before, revealing the “nun-export” strategy behind the sainthood of Alphonsa or during the beatification process of Mother Teresa, when I presented the evidence that the ‘miracle’ that the Vatican approved to make her saint was a fake.
So far, I have escaped their net.Their attempts to silence me made me fight them on a higher level. They may want to make my case an example to demonstrate “Catholic power”. But I am not easily intimidated. I have the will power to deal with such challenges and manipulative campaigns, because I know, who my opponent is and I know what is at stake.
Komen