Bolstered by Kerala Archbishop remarks, BJP slams Cong, Left, says don’t treat Christians like ‘vote bank’

An article in Indian Currents, an English weekly published by Catholic Christians, criticised Pamplany’s views. “Unfortunately, the Christian religious leaders in Kerala have no idea about the ideology behind the BJP, which is the political face of the RSS. Their ultimate intention is to establish Hindu Rashtra… Teachings of the official Church are never to align with any political party,” the article by Father Suresh Mathew said.

Welcoming the Archbishop’s remarks, Union Minister V Muraleedharan, a BJP leader from Kerala, said at a press conference at the party’s Delhi headquarters: “Do the CPI(M) and Congress believe they (Christian priests) don’t have the freedom to express their views if they indirectly support the government of India? It is ridiculous that both these parties claim to be pro-minorities but if Christian leaders speak some facts which may favour the government of India, they pounce upon them.”

Accompanying Muraleedharan were Congress-turned-BJP leader Tom Vadakkan and former Union minister K J Alphons, who also belong to Kerala.

Muraleedharan slammed the Congress for pinning attacks on churches on the BJP, adding that most of these recent incidents had been reported from Chhattisgarh, where the Congress was in power. States like Goa and the Northeast where Christians were in large numbers and where the BJP is in government did not see such attacks, he said.

The BJP has been trying to make inroads into Kerala politics and realises the need for an ally to break through. 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.

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 in-charge of Kerala affairs, Prakash Javadekar, is leading the party’s fresh outreach to various communities, and has been meeting leaders of the community.

On a visit to Kerala earlier this month, while addressing a rally in Thrissur, considered an area dominated by Christians, Union Home Minister Amit Shah talked of the Modi government having made Kerala “safer” by banning the radical Islamist outfit Popular Front of India.

BJP leaders said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been asking the party to bring newer groups into the fold, has specifically called for a change in approach towards the Christian community in Kerala.

He put in words the party’s ambitions for Kerala soon 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.