A Pope-Modi tweet lands Congress Kerala in a soup: Tweet deleted, but with a rider

After the tweet ran into controversy, the state unit of the party removed the tweet from its handle and sought an unconditional apology.

Referring to the Congress comment, the BJP state president K Surendran had said on Sunday, “It is now sure that urban Naxals or Radical Islamists are managing the social media of the Congress in Kerala. They can even insult the Pope. This will not happen without the knowledge of K C (Venugopal, AICC general secretary). Are Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge aware of this? Kerala has never seen such a tweet ridiculing the Christians in such a manner.”

Tendering an apology over the tweet, the Kerala Congress said people know that insulting religion, clergy or any deity is not the tradition of the party. “The party holds together all religions and faiths. The Congress does not have a distant thought to insult the Pope, respected by Christians across the world. At the same, the party has no hesitation to ridicule Narendra Modi, who insults the faithful in the country by claiming himself as god,” the handle tweeted.

We all are political opponents, not enemies. Let’s not hate each other.
It is in bad taste to insult Supreme Pontiff (The Pope) pic.twitter.com/tjLWwnTHJt

— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) June 17, 2024

The party said Surendran is attempting to belittle the Chrsitian community as one that lacks self respect. “BJP and Modi should first tender an apology towards the Christian community in Manipur,” it wrote.

The Kerala Congress handle has been particularly since the Lok Sabha polls, often using memes to criticise the BJP and its leaders.