Behind Anil Antony jumping ship, BJP’s push for Christian outreach in Kerala; father left anguished

Sources said Anil was in discussion with the BJP leadership after stepping down from posts in the Congress in January. Earlier this week, he met party president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to finalise the decision of joining the party. Party sources said the induction of the young leader was a decision taken at the central level.

The 37-year-old elder son of A K Antony, a former Defence Minister and one of the most senior leaders of the Congress, joined the BJP in the presence of Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and V Muraleedharan, Kerala BJP chief K Surendran, and senior party leaders Tarun Chugh and Anil Baluni at the party headquarters in New Delhi. Struggling to expand its base in Kerala, the BJP has launched a series of efforts to reach out to the Christian community, a minority but influential group, realising the need for an ally to break through.

The BJP — which is locked in a fierce battle with the Congress in Karnataka where the Christian community and the Church leadership are influential — hopes that Anil’s entry into the party will blunt the fears among the minority community and attract more youngsters from the community to the party. It has been trying to project various Christian faces, including former minister K J Alphons and former Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan, to gain a toehold in the community but its electoral prospects have not improved significantly.

The party believes the state’s powerful Christian groups could be the ally it needs and has been tapping into the unease among them over incidents of Islamic fundamentalism in the state. A space has opened up for the party due to the fading away of several powerful Christian leaders in the recent past and the decline of the Kerala Congress (M). The BJP leader in charge of Kerala affairs, Prakash Javadekar, is leading the party’s fresh outreach to various communities and has been meeting Christian leaders.

The party’s outreach efforts have intensified since Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed it to bring newer groups into its fold and specifically called for a change in the approach towards the Christian community in Kerala. After the recent Assembly elections in the Northeast, where the BJP returned to power in all the three states that went to polls, Modi said the results in Meghalaya and Nagaland proved that the party was not seen as “anti-Christian” and said a BJP coalition would come to power in Kerala too.

At the press conference in New Delhi, V Muraleedharan said Anil is a man of faith (Christianity) and holds national interest beyond political interest. “His joining the party will prove the false campaign that BJP does not welcome non-Hindus wrong. It’s a befitting reply to those who spread it.”

A K Antony, who returned to Kerala from Delhi a year back after retiring from active political life, told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram that the foundation of India’s unity is “secularism and pluralism”. He added, “When Modi came to power in 2014, there were steps to weaken this policy. After the 2019 elections, the country’s unity has been getting weakened,’’ said the veteran leader.

When asked about his father’s response to the move, Anil clarified at the press conference in Delhi, “This is not about personalities, this is about a difference of opinion and ideas. I strongly believe that I have taken the right step. My respect for my father will remain the same.”

BJP leaders praised Anil for his stance on the BBC documentary. Calling him a “multi-faceted personality” and a “political and social warrior who has concerns about the future of Kerala and India”, Piyush Goyal said, “The fact that he raised strong objections to the BBC documentary which sought to inflame tempers and raise completely unfounded baseless allegations against the honourable Prime Minister. Mr (Anil) Antony termed these as an assault on India’s sovereignty and integrity. It was obviously not liked by the Congress, which, at the same time, was trying to use the British soil to attack all democratic institutions in India.”

Reacting to Anil’s move, Congress state president K Sudhakaran said Anil had betrayed the Congress. “He is like Judas Iscariot ( a Biblical character), who has betrayed Jesus for thirty silver coins. Today, (Maundy Thursday, for Christians) is the day when Judas committed the betrayal. Anil’s entry into BJP needs to be seen only as such a betrayal. He has betrayed the Congress as well as A K Antony,’’ he said. Sudhakaran said Anil had no role in the party and he was nothing more than the son of A K Antony. “He never raised a slogan for Congress, he never held the flag of Congress and did nothing for the party. Being the son of Antony, we thought he was with Congress,’’ he said.

Sudhakaran added, “I don’t know whether the BJP thinks that getting A K Antony’s son to join the party fold will help it conquer this country. Nobody who has toiled for the Congress has left this party,’’ he said.