KHNA Response to the Jose Thayyil Article

Washington, DC. July 19 2011: KHNA's Trustee Board concluded a special conference on July 18th and decided to give a strong response to an utterly misleading article published in a local biweekly newspaper printed from New York, about the speeches from two of the most rspected speakers at the recently concluded 6th biennial KHNA convention. The article was written by Mr, Jose Thayyil, a local reporter who runs the newspaper, and referred to the speeches of Dr. N. Gopalakrishnan and Smt. Sasikala Teacher. The article was sent to an online news website run by another non-Hindu, and stayed there for 2 days before the online website decided to take that off voluntarily. The article was printed in the Jul 15th edition of the local newspaper, however.

In addition to twisting the facts of the speeches and insinuating that the speakers were not responsive to questions, the article published in the Op Ed section of the newspaper had also painted the Hindu malayali community at the convention to be effectively "clueless" about the matters being presented. As per the trustee board's and current and new office-bearers' decision not to give any publicity for the newspaper and to not continue any contacts directly or indirectly with the said newspaper, the below reproduction of the web publication of the article is in redacted form without mentioning the website or newspaper name. The author's name is left in there, as KHNA trustees feel that the community should know of him, and the religious extremism that is apparent behind the deliberate attempt to show the Malayali Hindu community and the two revered speakers in a bad light. Please click and read the PDF of the article below.

Jose Thayyil article Web version (PDF)
As a primary piece of evidence behind the matter, KHNA has determined that the contents of the speeches were indeed not as stated by the reporter. One of the anecdotal jokes told by Smt. Sasikala Teacher was presented as actions by her, for instance. Furthermore, a KHNA trustee was personally present when the said reporter had extended discussions with the speakers, one of which was just before the reporter was called over to take a group picture that was published in the newspaper too. Based on inputs from several sources, the KHNA trustee board has determined that the article was written with no less an intent than to mislead the readers into taking the two speakers as religious extremists to be shunned, and to paint the community that KHNA stands for, as misinformed. We reiterate that KHNA sees nothing short of activism of a religiously extremist nature in the report, which the author attempted to couch in the article as "just a criticism of the speakers". We can only consider this as a deliberate attempt to hurt the sentiments of the Malayali Hindu community supportive of the non-divisive and charitable activities of KHNA.

Several further actions are being initiated on this matter by KHNA, as per the trustee board decisions. KHNA will continue to actively promote the speech tours of the two speakers and will continue to support their activities which are to unite the malayali Hindu communities in the North American continent and elsewehere to counter the incessant attacks on the causes of the communities. While KHNA understands that the reporter and his newspaper are probably not worth wasting our time on, KHNA is also united in our stand that no such attempts, big or small, to misrepresent the organization or its activities will be tolerated.

Sincerely,

KHNA Trustee Board, President, and President-elect.