The Catholic Church in Kerala has come out in support of the UDF government in its latest issue of Catholica Sabha, the mouthpiece of Thrissur Archdiocese.
According to reports, in an article published in the mouthpiece, the upcoming election has been termed as a fight between the people opposing the liquor policy and those in support of it.
The article showered praises for the UDF government for implementing the liquor policy and accused the LDF and said their efforts seems to be aimed at re-opening the bars closed down as part of government’s liquor policy.
However, this is the same mouthpiece that had earlier criticized the UDF’s liquor policy in its issue published in January 2015. Reports quote from an interview published in the mouthpiece by Mar Remigiose Inchananiyil, Thamarassery Bishop and chairman of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) Madya Virudha Samithi. The article accused the UDF for “diluting its liquor policy”.
“The UDF has proved that it is in support of bar owners and the liquor lobby. The Church will strongly react to this. It will initiate protest measures and, if possible, legal proceedings,’’ he said in the interview.
The church further justified their interference in politics and said, “the Church is not merely a group of bishops and priests, and should remain a corrective force.”
In a dramatic departure from its criticism, the church is now all praises for the UDF liquor policy.
However, the article also criticizes the government saying the that the catholic community was sidelined in matters of education sector during the UDF rule, but quickly adds their support to the UDF to bring back a “democratic rule.”
It is public knowledge that the Catholic church exerted pressure on the government that in turn influenced them to not give a ticket to the sitting MLA Therambil Ramakrishnan.
The paper extended its support to K Karunakaran’s daughter Padmaja Venugopal, the UDF candidate from Thrissur constituency and said that the subsequent governments have not offered the kind of advantages that the catholic community received during K Karunakaran’s government.
The Catholic church has been seen supporting the UDF in the past in Thrissur and the article in the latest issue only emphasizes this point.
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