Media Monitor

Copy of Jerry's letter written to Asianet two months back.

Letter to Keralamonitor.com Editor

"Dear Sir,Thank you very much for all the wonderful things you are doing to help a family in distress. After going through the write up in your esteemed website I was quite thrilled and hopeful. Thrilled because you had courageously undertaken the mission to fight for truth and righteousness. Hopeful because honesty, integrity and decency is still existing on this beautiful earth of ours. During the last two years we were forced to believe that such qualities were a thing of the past. Thank you very much for renewing our faith," Mrs and Mr. Jerry on August 8, 2002.

 

"I am a proud Indian and a very great fan of Asianet.We are proud of the way your channel fights for justice and truth, and proud of the way you uphold the prestige of our great nation," Jerry Thomas, who represent millions of NRKs working in difficult situation. "I am in Tehran without a job, money or an air ticket to fly back to India. My sons, who were studying in the Indian School, were thrown out of school on 14 May 2002 for not paying their fees. They were not allowed to write their first Unit Test also. When the school has not settled my dues, from where can they expect me to pay the fees of my sons? I am in dire straits. Hoping for some action from your eminent channel..Wrote Jerry Thomas on 25th June 2002. Even though the couple send all contact addresses and reference in Iran and Kochi the eminent Channel did not do anything.!

Is it because they realised that Jerry cannot afford to give an advertisement to the Channel? Or is it because they wanted to keep the Indian School issue out of public memory to please some big powerful NRIs? We dont have the answer but know that something is fishy. One thing is certain that most of the media organisations are driven mainly by commercial interests, which is a dangerous trend. It is unfortunate that the channel has opted to be with the rich Keralite businessmen at the cost of responsible journalism. The Malayalam channel is also setting a dangerous trend by promoting paid programmes and interviews without the viewers knowing about it.

--Editor, Keralamonitor.com

Copy of Jerry Thomas Letter to Asianet, the Eminent Malayalam Channel

 

Jerry Thomas
Illegally Dismissed Teacher
Indian Senior Secondary School
Kuche Darvish, Hedayat,
Tehran - Iran.
Jerrytom60@yahoo.com

25 - 6 - 2002

To
The Editor of News
Asianet T.V.
Peyad
Trivandrum
India

Dear Sir,

I am presenting before you a most tragic case of human rights violation and harassment of individuals going on in the Indian School - Tehran, Iran. I am Jerry Thomas, a teacher of Indian Senior Secondary School - Tehran, Iran. I am a Malayalee. My father, Prof. Thomas Pulikkan, lives on Veekshnam Road, Kochi. His phone number is 354287. My Sister Mrs. Tessy Mathew and her husband Dr. T.M. Mathew are the proprietors of Thekkekara Mansions on M.G. Road, opposite Kavitha Theatre in Kochi. Ph. 345265.

My wife and I have been working here for the last 7 years teaching English, and we have a very clean record. We have two sons - the elder one is 11 years old and the younger one is 9 years old.

The Indian school-Tehran was started some 50 years ago by the Indian community members and follows the CBSE syllabus. The Ambassador of Indian to Tehran is its Chief Patron. The Holy Gurudwara Sahib is its Co-Patron and founder member. Another Co-Patron is a Trust attached to the Gurudwara. It has a School Managing Committee comprising of 5 Executive members of which 3 have resigned due to the illegal acts of the other two members.

We have contracts from the Indian school which is for 3 years and which we had signed on 1st May 2001. In spite of it we have been dismissed without any reason being ascribed or without providing us with any benefits as per our contracts. Our contract with the Indian School is for 3 years. We had signed our renewed contract on the 1st of May 2001, but we were given it only on the 31st of May, the day we were flying to India for Summer holidays. After we had signed the contract, the Manager and the Principal added certain conditions on the signed document which we came to know of only on the 31st of May. Since we had to leave on the same day, nothing could be done. You can verify the proof of it if you check the dates. Tampering with a signed document is a crime, but the Manager and the Principal did just that.

Our contracts were renewed only in May, 2001. Our old 3 year contract had ended in May 2001. If the school authorities did not want us with them, they need not have renewed our contracts. But what the sadistic Manager did was he renewed our contract, brought us to Tehran and then dismissed us so that we are left high and dry without a job, without any alternatives and without even airfare to go back. In May 2001 we had very good offers from other schools in the Gulf and other countries. We did not take it up because we had been teaching in the Indian School Tehran for 6 years and we had become used to this place and the Indian community who are quite friendly and nice.

According to our contract we are eligible for 3 months salary or 3 months' notice before termination of our services. We are also eligible for family airfare to our homeland. But after terminating our services sans a hearing or providing any reason the Principal is refusing to provide us with any of the terminal benefits which we are eligible for. We are even denied our airfare. (Copy of the contract enclosed)

According to our contract, or the CBSE rules which the school is following, or the School's constitution, the Principal has no right to terminate the services of a teacher. But this person, after he took over 1½ years ago, has terminated the services of 9 teachers (Copy attached). We appealed to the Ambassador of India, who is the Chief patron of the Indian school, a number of times. He has not replied to us even once. We have written to the School authorities again and again without avail. Neither have they provided any reason for our termination.

The Indian Embassy refused to renew our Residence Permit and also got Exit stamped on our passport dated 11 - 4 - 2002. I approached the Iranian Foreign Ministry which was kind enough to give me additional 15 days to settle matters and pack up because I have been here in Tehran for the last 7 years and I have been associated with some social work in connection with the Tehran Times and I have a lot of household goods which have to be got rid off. They provided me with time to settle matters.

I had written umpteen letters to the Honourable Ambassador and his representative to the School Managing Committee, but no reply was forthcoming. It was after all sorts of appeals fell on deaf ears that I had to finally resort to filing a court case. I have registered a case in the Labour Court over here against my illegal termination. Since the case is going on, I am still staying in the quarters the school had given me when I was a teacher with them. But now they are demanding 100,000 rials as rent from me per day. They cut off my telephone also in April 2002.

But unfortunately, on 10 - 4 - 2002, the Embassy of India wrote to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and asked them not to extend my Visa. They again wrote to the Iranian authorities on 22 April (copies enclosed). But the Iranian authorities did not heed them and extended my visa for another 3 months - till July 2002. Just imagine the reputation of the Indian Embassy in Tehran and the Diplomatic clout they command, after this. As a proud Indian I feel ashamed of the fall from grace of the Embassy authorities. This happened because they were trying to do something illegal.

 

I would like to pose certain questions over here:

1. Is the Embassy of a country there to help the country's citizens or to harass them?

2. When the final authority of appeal is the Ambassador, shouldn't the Honourable Ambassador listen
to our pleas and reply to us since we are in a foreign country and under his patronage and protection? He has not replied to more than 20 letters my wife and I have written to him. Is this justice? Is this diplomacy?

3. I have been here in the Indian School for the last 7 years and I have recommendation letters from more than 85 % of the Parents and nearly all my students. They want me here and have personally written to the Honourable Ambassador of India to retain me, but the Honourable Ambassador does not want me here - I don't know why? I have produced cent percent results all these years (Result analysis of 2002 enclosed). This year I produced an all time record in the Indian school - Tehran. In English there were 19 distinctions out of a total of 34 students. With nearly as many A grades. Yet the authorities have not given us any reason as to why we have been terminated.

4. The School is also under the patronage of the Holy Gurudwara Sahib, which has written to the Ambassador. As an Indian Citizen shouldn't I be given a fair deal and an impartial hearing and then decision taken in my case? (I am enclosing signed letters to the effect)

5. When I have a court case already registered in the Iranian Labour Court, how can the honourble Ambassador cancel my Visa Extension and write a special letter requesting the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs not to extend my Visa? How will I be able to continue with my court case? Isn't this mala-fide blockage of my right to get judicial redressal of my grievances?

6. Just because of somebody's personal enmity towards me I should not be harassed and tormented like this. I am a citizen of India, the world's biggest democracy and a country where freedom of the individual is respected to the very utmost. The Embassy keeps on threatening the innocent people who are supporting me. (letter enclosed).

7. There is an unholy nexus of the School's Manager, The Honourable Ambassador and the Embassy
representative - Mr. I.J. Giroh. They are using the Principal, who has to listen to and do whatever they
tell him to do so as to retain his post. In the process we, innocent teachers, are sacrificed due to
personal enmity.

8. I appeal to your honourable self to look into my grievances and please do something to save me. I have spent the best part of my life for the Indian school. Is this the reward a teacher gets after all that he
has done?

I am a proud Indian and a very great fan of Asianet. We are proud of the way your channel fights for
justice and truth, and proud of the way you uphold the prestige of our great nation. But sorry to say, some people over here in the Embassy of India - Tehran, are bringing the proud name of our dear motherland down. Please do something so that they do not carry on with this kind of denigration of our Indian pride. Please see that the Honourable Ambassador desists from such acts which are surely going to tarnish the reputation and proud name of the Indians in Iran.

If you ask any member of the Indian delegation who was here in the last 7 years about me you can get at the truth about my performance and my character. I was recruited by Mr. R.I. Das of the Indian Embassy in 1995. I worked under His Excellency Mr. Sidharth Singh and later under His Excellency Mr. R.S. Rathore. Please contact any one of them and find out about me and you can get the facts. Please do not let evil triumph at the cost of innocence. Please see that truth and justice are not sacrificed at the altar of lies.

I am in Tehran without a job, money or an air ticket to fly back to India. My sons, who were studying in
the Indian School, were thrown out of school on 14 May 2002 for not paying their fees. They were not allowed to write their first Unit Test also. When the school has not settled my dues, from where can they expect me to pay the fees of my sons? I am in dire straits. Hoping for some action from your eminent channel.

I remain yours truthfully,