THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sensing a larger political move behind the Kerala government’s latest stance not to object the deployment of central forces in Vizhinjam, the state BJP unit has decided to take up the matter with its national leadership.
The party is aware that any untoward incident involving central forces could further alienate the Christian community from the BJP. This, it believes, would be detrimental to the party’s outreach efforts. Not just the Latin Church but the entire community may turn hostile with such an action.
The BJP and the Sangh Parivar have been trying to woo various Christian denominations in the state for some time now. BJP knows that without winning the confidence of the at least a section of the Christian community, the party does not stand a chance in the state’s electoral politics.
The RSS-BJP central leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have held a series of meetings with various church heads in recent times. In light of this, the leadership thinks that the Left front government’s stand in the High Court on the Vizhinjam issue is politically motivated. The state leadership is likely take up the issue at its next meeting with Prakash Javadekar, the party’s in-charge of Kerala, and Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, co-in-charge. The leaders, along with central minister V Muralidharan, will discuss all possible ramifications of the issue.
Muralidharan on Saturday criticised the CM for the law and order situation in the state while commenting on the deployment of the central forces in Vizhinjam. The BJP believes that the LDF government is trying to play the blame game. If central forces are deployed at the port site, the LDF can accuse the BJP for any untoward incident, which can also be used to portray that the Centre is working against the Christian minorities,” said BJP state general secretary C Krishna Kumar. “This is the CPM and its government’s double standard. It won’t work. The party leadership is very cautious of such moves.
The state government, on its part, sees the Adani Group’s plea for the deployment of central forces as an opportunity to wash its hands of the fiasco. With the Assembly session beginning on Monday, it does not want to be blamed for law and order issues. In the last state election, the Left had received good support from Christian communities in the south and central regions.