Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan. File
| Photo Credit: K. Ragesh
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on March 20 blamed the ruling Left Democratic Front and the main Opposition Congress party in Kerala for treating the Christian community in the State as a captive “vote bank” and targeting Christian community leaders if they expressed any support to the BJP-led Central Government.
Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan said this while welcoming a statement by Thalassery Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, that their community could come out in support of the BJP if the party addresses the concerns of farmers.
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He expressed concerns that criticism of the Archbishop over his statement showed that people were being asked to suppress their opinions.
The Archbishop’s statement has created ripples in the political waters of Kerala after he stated that if the Centre promised to increase the price of rubber procurement to ₹300 per kilogram, BJP could finally get a Lok Sabha MP elected from the State. Mr. Muraleedharan was joined by BJP spokesperson Tom Vadakkan and former Union Minister K.J. Alphons.
“Do the CPI[M] and the Congress say they [Christian priests] don’t have the freedom to express their views if that indirectly supports the government of India? It is a ridiculous situation that both these parties claim to be pro-minorities but if Christian leaders speak some facts which may favour the Government of India, then they pounce upon them,” said Mr. Muraleedharan.
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He also targeted Congress for blaming the BJP for alleged attacks on churches, saying these incidents have been reported from Chhattisgarh where the country’s main Opposition party is in power. He noted that the BJP was in power in States such as Goa and those in the northeast where Christians are in large numbers. Mr. Muraleedharan had pointed out earlier that another archbishop, who had raised the issue of “narcotics jihad”, was also targeted by the two parties.
Speaking at a meeting attended mostly by farmers, Archbishop Pamplany had said that “no protest in a democracy has value if it does not translate into votes during elections. We will tell the Central Government that whichever your party may be, we will vote for you if you can increase the price of rubber to ₹300. The migrant population will address the issue of your lack of an MP from here.”
The archbishop’s statement comes a couple of weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, buoyed by his party’s poll performance in three minority-dominated northeastern States, said the BJP alliance would form a government in Kerala considering the increasing support of minorities for the saffron party.
