A Catholic priest in India denied allegations that Church-led protests against a seaport project received foreign funds to destabilize the country.
“Our hands are clean and ready to face any probe,” said Father Theodacious D’Cruz, one of the convenors of the fishermen’s protest against the Adani international seaport in Vizhinjam coast in Thiruvananthapuram district in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Fishermen and their family members have been protesting against the construction of the seaport after Kerala’s Communist-led government refused to accept their demands for resettlement and rehabilitation.
“Our protest has now entered the 105th-day and we are getting good public support, but we are being accused of accepting foreign funds to destabilize the country and its developments,” Father D’Cruz told Matters India on November 1.
The priest was responding to the allegation that Aleyamma Vijayan, the secretary of Sakhi Women’s Resource Centre, received funds for the protest. She is the wife of A J Vijayan, a trade union leader and a petitioner in the National Green Tribunal against the port project.
Aleyamma has filed a defamation suit against the news channel “News 18” that carried the news.
In the petition, she said the organization has been working in human rights since 1996 in Thiruvananthapuram. It is registered as a Public Charitable Trust with a Foreign Contribution Regulation Act registration to receive funds.
“Sakhi’s activities are very transparent. Since it is a registered body under the Indian Trust Act, its income has been audited every year and its income tax returns have been filed promptly,” said Aleyamma.
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