BJP vs BJP: Why Kerala nuns’ arrest in Chhattisgarh has driven party units apart

Chattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Monday justified the police action against the nuns, saying that the issue was “serious and sensitive that affects safety of our daughters’’ and that it “should not be politicised”.

The Kerala BJP has dismissed CM Sai’s statement, asserting that the arrested nuns were not involved in any conversion or human trafficking attempts. It has also rushed party general secretary Anoop Antony, its key Christain face, to Raipur to take up the matter with the authorities there to provide relief to the jailed nuns.

Kerala BJP president and ex-Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar told reporters in Delhi, “We will ensure all support for the nuns. Our state general secretary is currently in Chhattisgarh, and we are committed to ensuring that all necessary assistance is provided to secure justice for the arrested nuns. While Chhattisgarh, being a tribal state, has an anti-conversion law in place, we are convinced that the allegations of conversion against the Malayali nuns are not true. We have been in constant touch with the state government since the issue first came to light. The BJP is determined to stand by the nuns until they are released and justice is delivered.” He added that the parties like the Congress were trying to exploit the matter for their “opportunistic politics”.

The Kerala BJP went into a damage control exercise after the Congress, which has seemed to be losing traction among its Christian support base in the state, raked up nuns’ arrest to “expose dual face” of the BJP. State Congress leaders sought to project the BJP as “a party that jails Christian clergy in North India while visiting Christian homes in Kerala on Christmas and Easter”.

What has worried the BJP is the strong stand taken by Kerala’s Churches, especially the Catholic Church, against the Chhattisgarh police’s action against the two nuns, who belong to the politically, numerically and socially powerful Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.

In Thrissur, many Catholics took to the streets Tuesday in protest against the nuns’ arrest. The BJP had registered its first-ever Lok Sabha win from Kerala when actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi won the Thrissur seat in the 2024 elections. Besides, in the recent organisational revamp, the party inducted several Christian faces in its leadership at the state and district levels.

However, the Kerala BJP’s stance towards the nuns’ arrest has not gone down well with other Sangh Parivar outfits. Prominent RSS leader and state president of Hindu Aikya Vedi, an umbrella organisation of pro-Sangh groups, R V Babu, in a Facebook post, said, “The activities of Christian missionaries in North and Northeastern states are different. Massive conversion has been going on in those places focusing on Hindus. Why is the Church not going to Muslim areas with evangelisation activities? Have these missionaries taken any oath that they will serve only Hindus.”

Former Vedi general secretary Bhargava Ram, in his Facebook post, said, “There should not be any compromise towards conversion”, adding that “Let the Christian missionaries try to rectify the backwardness of their own community. Attempts by the Christian community, which is worried over love jihad, to insult Bajrang Dal on the ground that it opposes conversion should be resisted.”

Several other social media handles associated with various Sangh Parivar outfits in Kerala have also come out to question the Christian missionary works in North India. Some of them have also taken exception to the Kerala BJP chief “meddling” in the Chhattisgarh row.