BJP’s Kerala state Vice President AN Radhakrishnan’s failed attempt to climb the Malayattoor hill which is situated atop Kerala’s famous Malayattoor Church, on Good Friday earlier this month, has become a political talking point in the state. The challenging Christian pilgrimage trek involves a 3km climb with 14 halts to mark the ‘way of the cross’, and Radhakrishnan stopped after 300 meters, citing tiredness. While he made a more rigorous, almost theatrical attempt at wooing the Christians to the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) in Kerala, his colleagues opted for easier solutions like visiting Bishops at their residences on the day of Easter.
The maiden gesture in this scheme came from BJP state President K Surendran, Union Minister of State V Muraleedharan, and former BJP state President PK Krishnadas, who met heads of the church on Easter. While V Muraleedharan visited the Latin Archbishop Thomas J Netto at his residence in Thiruvananthapuram, Krishnadas met Joseph Pamplany, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church Metropolitan Archbishop of Thalassery, and Surendran visited Bishop Varghese Chakkalakal, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Kozhikode.
As a continuation of the party’s effort to woo the Catholics in Kerala, Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs John Barla visited the head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic church Cardinal Mar George Alencherry on April 18.
The Christians are one of the two minority communities in the state along with the Muslims. As per the 2011 Census, 54.73 % of Kerala's population comprises Hindus, 26.6% Muslims, and 18.4 % of Christians. The BJP has zero representation in the state Legislative Assembly. A week after Easter, on April 15, the day of Vishu, Geevarghese Mar Yulios, the Metropolitan Bishop of Kunnamkulam Orthodox diocese in Thrissur, visited BJP leader N Hari's residence in Kottayam as a part of the BJP's 'Snehayatra' programme, a party outreach event. Other prominent Christian priests also visited the houses of BJP leaders on Vishu day. Also K Surendran has said that Prime Narendra Modi will meet church leaders in Kochi in his two-day visit to Kochi scheduled for April 25.
This raises questions as to how the ruling CPI(M) (Communist Party of India) and the Congress-led Opposition in Kerala would counter the BJP's strategy to please the minority community to gain an electoral advantage.
CPI(M) State Secretary MV Govindan told TNM that there is no need to resist the BJP’s move to find electoral allies among the Christians, as the people of the community wouldn’t fall for it. “The BJP in Kerala is staging a deliberate campaign to cover up for their attacks against minorities. The RSS has always been engaged in propaganda against the Communists, the Muslims, and the Christians. People in the state are quite aware that they (the BJP) are doing it for temporary gains. Recently, RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) Chief Mohan Bhagwat said that Christian missionaries cannot be trusted. ,” he said.
Govindan added that the protest that happened this year at Jantar Mantar in Delhi has been a rare form of agitation in the history of the country by various Christian groups. “The groups that protested categorically mentioned that the attacks against Christians happened at 598 places,” said Govindan. He asserted that the peculiarity of Kerala as a state is that the people will ideologically deal with the propaganda of the BJP. “Kerala has an anti-communal fabric that is based on secular thoughts. This propaganda won’t have any impact on the ideological strength of the people of the state,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President K Sudhakaran called the BJP leaders’ visits to Bishop houses a hypocritical farce. In his statement about the move, Sudhakaran mentioned Karnataka BJP minister Munirathna’s hate speech against Christians. Muniratna, the Horticulture Minister of Karnataka had said, “Christians are converting people and it is maximum in the slums. If there are 1,400 people, 400 have been converted. If they come for conversion, then hit them and send them back or give a complaint at the police station.”
Opposition leader VD Satheesan of the Congress stated that the Christians of Kerala wouldn’t fall for this kind of gimmick in electoral politics. Satheesan also said that the Bishops received the BJP leaders as they could not refuse the representatives of a party that is ruling the country. “They receive them (the BJP leaders) because of insecurity too,” Satheesan has said.
CL Thomas, a political observer and Editor-in-Chief of Aidem, an online news platform, told TNM that people of minority communities have no faith that the BJP will save them. “When the minority communities of the state come together that will be a major force. If the BJP’s plans need to work out in the state they will have to get support of a majority of people who belong to the minority communities. Muslims are made to feel most insecure under the BJP rule. Hence, the BJP thinks that it is the Christians, among the minorities in Kerala, who can be wooed,” he said.
Thomas further said that if we look at the political history of the Christians, they have always tried to be part of power politics. “The official Church, by official Church I mean those who head it, have always expressed an anti-Communist attitude. The Church heads, the Bishops, and those who have power in the Church might not have any problem associating with the BJP. This is visible from Cardinal Alencherry’s statement that Christians are not insecure in BJP-ruled India. But not all Christians are with the official church,” he added.
The reference Thomas made is regarding Cardinal Alencherry’s comment in a recent interview that Christians are not insecure in BJP-ruled India and that Narendra Modi is a good leader. “The Cardinal’s stand should be viewed as an opportunistic one which should be linked to the comment of Bishop Joseph Pamplany who said that if the price of rubber can be increased, then BJP will get an MP from Kerala. The BJP’s political move towards the Christians is also because a section of Christians are Islamophobic as evident from the love jihad comments made by them,” he said.
Thomas continued, “The question here is how the Congress would deal with it. If the BJP turns successful in its plan to woo at least a section of Christians, that would adversely impact the Congress, not the LDF (Left Democratic Front) as Christians are a major vote bank for the Congress. Congress should take a stronger and open stand against the BJP in the state. Currently, the Congress, focusing on the political gains in the state, is on a scathing attack against the LDF, or at least they have created such a feeling. Congress has to build up faith among minorities that it is a dependable party. If the minorities in the state develop a feeling that the Congress cannot address their concerns, that would cost dear to the party.”
Riju Kanjookkaran, the convener of the Almaya Munnettam, a whistleblower- reformist forum of the Syro Malabar Catholic church, said that the bishops who praise the BJP have their personal gains in mind.
Asserting that the stand of the Bishops is not that of the devotees, Riju flayed Bishop Pamplany’s statement linking rubber price to votes as one for the political gains of the BJP saying that offering a vote in return for something is a give-and-take policy, not a political stand. “Casting vote is dependent on political stance. Also, all Christians are not rubber farmers.
He added, “Alencherry has been facing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe in the land scam. The agency is under the control of the ruling party and the options left to him are either to relent to the ED or to associate with the BJP,” he said. Cardinal Alencherry is accused of a Church-related land scam and a section of the devotees and priests in Kerala have been openly opposing him for a long time.
Riju went to the extent of saying that Christians will not overlook attacks on their community in places across India. “We don’t oppose the BJP’s political tactics of visiting the Bishops at their residences, but we would strongly oppose it if the Bishops claim that all Christians are with the BJP. At any point, the Christian devotees in the state won't cooperate with the BJP or forgive them for the atrocities against Christians that were carried out by the Sangh Parivar in north India,” he said.
Though the CPI(M) and Congress are keen to ignore the BJP’s overtures, there has been a steady rise in the number of Christians supporting Islamophobia. The BJP is hoping that this mistrust between the two communities will translate into Christians drifting towards the BJP.