THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi met seven bishops from across the state on Monday in Kochi, CSI Bishops were conspicuous by their absence.
This has come as a major embarrassment to A Dharmaraj Rasalam, CSI moderator and Bishop of South Kerala Diocese, who is facing a probe by the Enforcement Directorate in a case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Notably, a dissident faction of the CSI Church had recently assured the BJP of the community’s support in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Including Rasalam, CSI Church has six bishops in Kerala. Rasalam being the senior bishop has always been considered a formidable figure in the community and state. Recently his name figured in the case related to financial violations in the admissions to Dr Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College Karakonam, Thiruvananthapuram.
Curiously, Bishop Baker Noman Fenn, CSI Bishop of Cochin Diocese, was also not invited to the meet. When TNIE contacted Rasalam on why the PMO had not extended an invitation to him or the other five Bishops, he retorted, “No comments.”
V T Mohanan, the whistleblower trying to unearth corrupt practices in CSI Church, had approached Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah against Rasalam and other CSI bishops being invited to the meeting. In his letter to the BJP leadership, Mohanan, son of former CPM legislator V J Thankappan, also extended support to BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections by the Nadar Christian community.
“A dissident group of the Church had met former state BJP prabhari C P Radhakrishnan a few months ago. We had assured BJP of the community’s support in the general elections. BJP has realised that hardly 1% of the community supports Rasalam. Our campaign against top honchos of CSI resulted in the ED grilling them,” Mohanan told TNIE.
Christian votes are very crucial in every election in Thiruvananthapuram. The Nadar community votes that are close to three lahks are decisive in at least seven out of 14 assembly constituencies in the district. Congress has always benefited from Nadar consolidation in past, but during the 2021 assembly elections, the community votes went to the Left camp.
6 CSI Bishops in state