The Latin Catholic Church and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Friday (August 7, 2026), separately, sought to put the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government on the dock over its alleged failure to rescue fishers who went missing at sea during the current spell of heavy rain that wreaked havoc across Kerala, including its 640-km coastline.

The Vicar General of the Thiruvananthapuram Latin Catholic Archdiocese, Fr. Eugine H. Pereira, told reporters that he had met Fisheries Minister V.E. Abdul Gafoor in person ahead of the rough season and raised a charter of demands for fishers’ welfare, including the establishment of an effective marine search-and-rescue system, and compensation and government jobs for the families of fishers lost to the sea, to no avail.

Unpreparedness

“Our rulers failed to warn fishers of the inclement weather situation, and they had no effective oversight over the disaster response. Kerala has reverted to the pre-Ockhi level of unpreparedness,” he said.

The Church’s criticism assumes political significance against the backdrop of its enduring grievance that the UDF had overlooked the Latin Catholic community, which has sizeable electoral heft and often hewed to the Congress, in Cabinet formation.

The Church had also demanded that the UDF hand over the Fisheries portfolio to an MLA from the fisherfolk community. Nevertheless, it felt that the UDF had overlooked the Latin Catholic community by nominating Mr. Gafoor, an Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader, to the post. The UDF’s recurrent attempts to iron out difficulties with the Church leadership had yielded mixed results.

Emotive protests

Meanwhile, highly emotive protests by fishers rocked Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram, with the families of the missing persons staging sit-ins in front of coastal police stations and Fisheries department offices, accusing the UDF government of absence and a lack of coordination during the crisis.

At Nendakara in Kollam, Gautam Krishna, 26, who ventured into the sea, remains untraced after a deep-sea trawler with 14 crew members on board capsized off the Kollam coast last week. Local fishers rescued several of the crew and retrieved the bodies of Gautam Krishna’s father, Radhakrishnan and grandfather, Rajeevan. Gautam’s mother, Reshma, has been staging a sit-in protest outside the Coastal Police Station, refusing food and water, until she received clarity on the rescue operations.

Similar protests unfolded at Vizhinjam and Muthalapozhi in Thiruvananthapuram with local people blocking roads and gheraoing Fisheries department officials for failing to trace missing fishers.

At Vizhinjam and Muthalapozhi, the families of John, 54, from Pulluvila, and Shijin, respectively, bemoaned the government’s allegedly lackadaisical search-and-rescue operations to locate the fishers who went missing on July 31, 2026 and August 2,2026, respectively.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretary M.V. Govindan visited the distraught families and alleged that the government had cold-shouldered them. He said the fishing community was indignant that no Minister had turned up to support the grieving families.

The Kerala State Fishermen Federation (affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) general secretary P.P. Chittharanjan, ex-MLA, said Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan “had insulted the coastal community by choosing to attend private parties and jewellery showroom inaugurations instead of steering the search-and-rescue mission for the missing fishers.”

Published - August 07, 2026 07:23 pm IST