KOCHI: The latest editorial of Sathyadeepam, the weekly published by the Ernakulam Angamaly Archdiocese, raises an alarm on the degeneration of secular thought in Kerala in the backdrop of ‘dance jihad’ row and the call by MLA P C George for a Hindu Rashtra.
The article said that it was extremists who brought forward doubts about the new notion of ‘dance jihad’ after the viral video of medicos at Thrissur medical college became a hit online. It said that religious extremists are on the move by casting a shadow of extreme religious awareness on society, so much so that people doubt the food they eat, the medicine they take, the vehicle they travel and the place they stay.
The article said that the older generation should get inspired from the generation of the dancing medicos who struck down the hate comments by ignoring them and asking to let them be. “Let our children grow up as themselves. Let the invisible lines of division and hate may never become clear among them,” the article said.
The article also said that it was an indecent transformation that ‘secular’ Kerala has started to forget the happiness of coexistence among people from different religious backgrounds. “It is another face of the changed times that some extremist thoughts—like there was no need to support secularism anymore—were being shared even among Christians, at least in some places,” said the article. It further said that it was the political leadership of Kerala that had first realised the commercial potential of religious extremism.