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After its attempt to reach out to the Christian community on Easter Sunday, the BJP in Kerala is set to seriously woo the other sizeable minority community in the state ahead of next year’s General Election, with plans to visit homes of people from Muslim community on Eid, which is expected next week.
The visit to Christian religious heads and selected homes of people from the community on Easter had sparked a political debate in Kerala, with the governing Left and main Opposition Congress criticising the party.
Senior BJP leader and party’s Kerala in-charge, Prakash Javadekar, gave the direction to the state unit on Wednesday following a meeting of BJP office-bearers in Kochi. As part of the outreach campaign, BJP workers will visit homes of people from the Muslim community and extend the party’s greetings.
Besides, on the day of Vishu, BJP workers would open their houses for others to join in the celebrations.
Javadekar said BJP workers are striving to realise the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to unite people from all sections and communities. “BJP workers visited homes of Christians on Easter day and extended the greetings of the Prime Minister. That was a big success,” he said.
The BJP’s Christian outreach programme had sparked a political debate in Kerala, with the CPI(M) pointing out that the RSS had earlier declared minorities, including Christians, and Communists as internal threats to India. Both CPI(M) and Congress had slammed the BJP for its leaders visiting Bishops — the two parties’ leaders pointed toward attacks on churches in North India, allegedly by activists from Hindutva organisations.
Defending the outreach bid, the BJP asserted that both CPI(M) and Congress were jittery over losing their minority vote bank.
Split reaction
The BJP’s attempt to get closer to the Christian community has left clerics in Kerala divided. A section of bishops welcomed the move on the ground that time has changed and the saffron party should not be kept at bay over its past declaration against minorities — that people from the community are an internal threat to the country. Another section feels that “atrocities” against Christians under the BJP should be factored in while warming up towards the Sangh Parivar
