THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Suddenly, the race is on among political parties to capture the goodwill, and thereby the vote share of Christians in Kerala. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded the meeting with the Orthodox and the Jacobite factions of the Malankara church in New Delhi over the last two days to find a solution to the decades-long dispute, in Kerala, Muslim League leader P K Kunhalikutty has started reaching out to Christian religious leaders in a move to allay misconceptions, if any, of the community that League was dominating the Congress- led UDF.
On Tuesday, Kunhalikutty called on Cardinal Baselios Cleemis of Syro-Malankara Catholic Church at the Archbishop’s House at Pattom in Thiruvananthapuram where they held talks on the prevalent political situation in the state. The meeting comes in the wake of the defeat of the UDF in the local body polls. It is felt that the Christian community may be deserting the Congress-led front and may have voted for the CPM-led LDF and even the BJP-led NDA, especially in central Kerala.
In Thrissur, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said a community, which used to support the UDF, has come to the Left front. At the breakfast meeting on Tuesday, Kunhalikutty apprised Cardinal Cleemis of the UDF’s strong support to the Christian communities. He told TNIE that he explained to the cardinal that UDF has never changed its stand.
“The rapport the UDF shared with the Christian communities is still intact. There has been a misunderstanding between the UDF and them. I assured Cardinal Cleemis that there will not be any sort of contradictory stand. I also assured him that we will not show any form of highhandedness,” said Kunhalikutty. This is not the first overture to the Christian religious leaders to woo them back to UDF fold. Kunhalikutty along with Muslim Youth League leader Syed Sadiqali Shihab Thangal had called on Thamarassery Archbishop Remigiose Inchananiyil on Christmas Day.
A source close to Cardinal Cleemis told TNIE that Kunhalikutty used to attend the New Year banquet organised by the archbishop every year on January 2. “But this time, the banquet has been cancelled due to the pandemic protocol. Still, Kunhalikutty was keen to meet the cardinal. They discussed the prevailing political situation. We have never said the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church does not have the same rapport with the UDF anymore. It is a media creation,” said the source.
Sadiqali Thangal’s article in the party mouthpiece, Chandrika, on the conversion of Istanbul’s iconic church, Hagia Sophia, into a mosque has not gone down well with Christian communities in Kerala. Prior to the local body elections, the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council had expressed its strong displeasure at the League’s stand on the issue. BJP too hopes to win over the Christian votes, if it is able to find a solution to the decades-long Malankara Church dispute.
The seriousness the party attached to this can be gauged by the intervention by none other than the prime pinister himself, said analysts. Mizoram Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai, a veteran BJP leader, speaking to reporters some days back, said one particular section of the minorities was cornering 80 per cent of the Central government funds for the welfare of minorities in Kerala. “Clearly, both the Left and the BJP are aiming to attract the votes of the Christian community, which constitute 20 per cent of the population in Kerala,” said a political analyst, who wished not to be named. (With inputs from Kochi )