Kerala Minister for Culture Saji Cherian on January 2 (Tuesday) withdrew his earlier statement that bishops and other Church leaders were gripped with excitement on receiving an invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He was speaking to mediapersons at the Ernakulam Press Club in Kochi in the backdrop of the furore over his remarks on bishops and other Church leaders attending the Christmas celebrations hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently and reportedly not expressing concern over attacks on minority communities in Manipur and other States.
Mr. Cherian, however, said that members of the Christian community must take note of the over 700 attacks on them and their religious gatherings during 2023 on the one side and attempts to woo the very same community by delivering cakes to their homes.
Mr. Cherian said that this carrot and stick policy is against dharma and members of minority communities must see through the BJP’s long-term plans to establish the party’s presence in Kerala.
Statistics show that there were at least two concerted attacks on Christians each day in India, of which 287 were in Uttar Pradesh alone. Next came Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Haryana, all of which are BJP-ruled States. The 700 attacks in 2023 is in stark contrast with 140 attacks in 2014. This shows that the scale of violence against Christians and gatherings of the community increased manifold during the past nine years. This has also resulted in India being ranked 11th on the attacks against Christians, said Mr. Cherian.
KCBC reaction
Slamming the Minister’s remarks, Archbishop and president of Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) Cardinal Mar Baselios Cleemis had said earlier in the day that the council would not cooperate with the Kerala Government until Mr. Cherian withdrew the remarks and explained his stand.
However, Mr. Cherian stood his ground by saying that that issues such as the violence in Manipur ought to have been mentioned at the Christmas celebrations that the Prime Minister hosted since it was a rare face-to-face with him.
This is because both the Centre and the Manipur Government failed to prevent or curb the attacks on minority groups there despite over 200 people being killed, houses of 60,000 others and hundreds of churches being destroyed, he pointed out.
Mr. Modi did not bother to visit Manipur or to make a statement in Parliament on the violence that is still continuing. Likewise, members of the Muslim community too were at the receiving end of targeted violence by weapons-toting people participating in Ram Navami rallies in nine States. Even the police are being misused to launch attacks on members of minority and tribal communities, said Mr. Cherian.
Such attacks are aimed at appeasing Hindutva forces. People must be able to see through the BJP’s hopes of gaining political foothold in Kerala. Secular principles must be upheld for the country to stand united, he added.
