The violence in Manipur and the Centre’s purported move to draft a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), it appears, are threatening to throw the BJP’s carefully choreographed outreach to minorities off balance in Kerala.
On Thursday, Mar Joseph Pamplany, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Thalassery Archdiocese of the influential Syro-Malabar Church, lent his voice to the anti-BJP chorus in the wake of the Manipur violence.
The BJP had counted Mar Pamplany among its backers in the Church after the archbishop said Christians would vote for the BJP if the Centre ensured a higher market price for rubber. Christian settler farmers hold immense political and social clout in Central and North Kerala and view the Church as their champion.
On Thursday, Mar Pamplany took a potshot at the BJP-led Manipur government by stating that people could not be faulted if they thought the State covertly sanctioned the violence. Notably, he likened the violence in the northeastern State to the 2002 Gujarat riots. The archbishop said the savagery overwhelmingly targeted the Christian community.
Mar Pamplany also trained the guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that Mr. Modi claimed in the U.S. that India was a rule-based society and its Constitution was a guarantee against religious discrimination. He said the world would perceive his words to be honest if Mr. Modi could convince the people of Manipur that there was no religious prejudice and bigotry in the State.
The archbishop also railed against the Centre’s purported move to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), seemingly echoing the political line of the Congress, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Left parties. The three parties are against implementing the UCC, claiming that it would eliminate Constitutional protections that give religious, linguistic and ethnic minorities the right to live under their civil laws, including those governing marriage and divorce.
Mar Pamplany demanded that the Centre circulate the proposal for public debate and seek the opinion of State legislatures.
Left Democratic Front (LDF) convener E.P.Jayarajan welcomed the archbishop’s statement. He said it resonated with the line of Left secular forces in the country. He said the BJP proposed the UCC to demonise minorities and further divide society to reap electoral gains.
(with inputs from Kannur bureau)
