Manipur strife casts shadow on BJP’s Christian outreach bid in Kerala

Kochi: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party unit in Kerala is carrying out a “sneha yatra” – an outreach towards the Christian community – at the grassroots level with leaders and workers going door-to-door at Christian homes and establishments. But unlike Easter, when the yatra was first conducted for a day, this time, BJP workers are facing probing questions, especially over the ethnic violence in Manipur that erupted on May 3 and claimed at least 180 lives.

The BJP remains a marginal player in Kerala’s politics with an 11.3% vote share in the last assembly elections and having no MLAs or MPs directly elected from the state. However, it has for some time understood that its electoral success hinges on drawing support from the Christian community, which comprises nearly 19% of the state’s population, apart from retaining its core Hindu vote.

Publicly, BJP leaders have said that its “sneha yatra” is only to convey the Christmas-New Year wishes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Christian leadership and the larger community and that it doesn’t have political objectives. But privately, leaders have said the reception towards it from the Christian community has been cold due to “misunderstandings” about the party and anger against it to an extent on account of its handling of the riots in Manipur.

BJP state chief K Surendran kicked off the yatra in Kochi on December 21 by meeting Cardinal George Alencherry, former head of the Syro-Malabar Church, and Archbishop Dr Joseph Kalathiparambil of the Latin Archdiocese of Verapoly.

Later, he told reporters, “I conveyed the Prime Minister’s Christmas-New Year wishes to the Cardinal. We will go to everyone’s homes with the message of the Prime Minister. There is no politics in it. We are sending out the big message of ensuring solidarity and brotherhood. On Easter, we could only do it for one day. This time, it’s a larger campaign over 10 days.”

When asked whether the party was facing heat from the community over the Manipur violence, the BJP chief pointed to the Mizoram assembly election results.

“In the Mizoram election, the Congress made the violence in neighbouring Manipur one of its main campaign planks. The Congress ended up losing many seats and their vote-share shrunk significantly. It is evident that the Christian community will not take long to see through these false campaigns against the BJP. In a state with over 90% Christian population, the BJP was able to double the seats and vote-share it had previously,” he said.

At the same time, he claimed there have been some “misunderstandings” within the community in Kerala. “The Congress and the CPM have created a narrative (against us). It has led to misunderstandings. We hope that initiatives like the sneha yatra will clear such doubts.”

However, in a signal that the Syro-Malabar church perhaps doesn’t want to attach too much importance to these visits, photographers were not allowed inside the church headquarters in Kakkanad during Surendran’s visit. The church also didn’t issue a press release or photos of the visit of the BJP leader.

A top leader of the state BJP, who did not want to be named, said, “There certainly is a gap between the party and the Christian community which widened following the violence in Manipur. There is a feeling among them that the situation there could have been handled better. So, now we have to do a lot of damage control.”

Another leader in Pathanamthitta district, who has been part of the yatra at the local level, said, “The LDF and UDF parties here were able to use the issue very well to create fissures between us and the Christian community. Particularly, the Congress sensed that the community was drifting away from it. They exploited it very well.”

“During our house-to-house visits, we try not to talk about it (Manipur). It would have been easier if it hadn’t happened. We would have got a much wider acceptance,” he said.

In the months following the outbreak of ethnic clashes in Manipur, the BJP and the central government faced harsh criticism from top leaders of various Church denominations in Kerala.

Cardinal Mar Baselios Cleemis, archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and president of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC), on July 8 said, “Manipur is a state whose people also live by India’s Constitution. Why is the administration taking so much time to quell the violence in the state? It has been 65 days now. Why is there silence? PM Modi should stop his silence and speak now.”

“There are different assumptions in the name of riots in Manipur. There is a simple question. Are those fighting and killing each other there Indians or foreigners? If they are Indians, shouldn’t the Indian government have the moral responsibility to protect their lives?...let religions and beliefs be kept aside. In the name of riots there, if anyone thinks they can wipe out Christianity from India, it’s a daydream. India’s soul tells us that there is great danger in making people from different religions fight each other,” he added.

Similarly, Mar Joseph Pamplany, Thalassery Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church, who had once said that the votes of the community can be transferred to the BJP if the central government hikes the MSP of rubber to ₹300, called the violence in Manipur a “genocide”. “There seems to be a concerted move to create riots and people naturally would have apprehensions whether the governments are protecting those behind it,” he had said in June.

J Prabhash, former professor of political science at the University of Kerala, said whatever little closeness the church leadership may have had with the BJP in the state has been lost due to the handling of the situation in Manipur.

“Historically, the community has not been close to the BJP. Lately, some people in higher posts of the church may have given pro-BJP statements, but the ordinary Christians on the ground have voted for either the Left or the Congress. That’s because they know the BJP doesn’t have any prospects here. There is no rootedness in their leadership,” he said.

“As long as the BJP doesn’t emerge as an alternative force within the state, there is no cause for friendship with it for the Church. The BJP also has to emerge as a unifying force. The language that it speaks in the north is not attractive here in the south. They have to clarify their stand about minorities,” Prabhash said.