Church, BJP leaders trade barbs: Are fissures brewing between BJP, Church after Kerala polls?

THe Kerala BJP building block’s efforts o'er the years to court the Christian community of interests in the say, particularly the Catholic Church, appear to be wobbling in the backdrop of terse exchanges between the Church and two of the party’s prominent Christian leaders.The row began after former MLA PC George and his son Shone George, BJP state vice-president, criticised a bishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church for allegedly secretly calling up nunneries and asking its members to vote for the Congress-led UDF in the recently held assembly polls in Kerala.The former seven-time MLA, who joined the BJP in 2024, called certain Church leaders and bishops “shameless” for openly propagating their political views. He also alleged that a few Church clergy were “barking” in support of the UDF, indicating their “rotten politics”.His son, Shone George, who was the BJP candidate from Pala assembly constituency, had hit out at the Church-run ‘Deepika’ daily for issuing an editorial against the BJP over the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill (FCRA) which was moved in the Lok Sabha and later kept aside after criticism from several Christian churches. “If the Church’s stand is that it doesn’t need the BJP’s help, then so be it. We will also not be there for the Church,” he had said.Subsequently, Mar Joseph Kallarangatt, Pala Bishop of the Syro-Malabar Church, issued a veiled warning to the BJP.“Threats will not work here. Should we remain mute like animals? Who are they trying to teach? Those in public life can say anything about religious leaders. But the criticism must be in a respectful language. The church has the right to seek votes openly, not secretly,” Kallarangatt was heard saying in a gathering over the weekend.In response to Bishop Kallarangatt, Shone George claimed that the BJP was the only party to rush to his defence when he made remarks about “love jihad” existing in Kerala.“When the LDF government registered cases against him and all other parties took out marches to his residence, the BJP-RSS stood firmly by him. Did the Congress stand by him? The FCRA bill is not a religious law and it is not binding on just charities run by the Church. It applies to all communities and religions. The FCR law was first brought in by the Congress,” said George.The BJP state unit privately assesses that the FCRA bill, though kept on hold by the Union government following criticism from the Church, has dealt a political setback to it in the assembly elections held on April 9. The editorial of the Church-run Deepika against the FCRA bill on election day is seen in that light.The BJP has spent the last few years conducting outreach to Christians in the state by visiting senior clergy during Easter and Christmas and intervening in issues like the attack on nuns in Chhattisgarh and the Waqf issue in Munambam.Christians together account for nearly 19% of the state’s population and the BJP seems to be trying to wean away a section of the Christian vote and combining it with its core Hindu vote in order to expand its political footprint in the state.Senior BJP leader KS Radhakrishnan said the counting of votes on May 4 will determine whether there is a break in Christian support for the party.“BJP’s core vote remains the Hindu votes. The rest is all outreach. We have not gone away from our core Hindu base, but it is a reality that we have adopted a pro-Christian approach,” he told local media.