In a setback to the BJP's efforts to enhance rapport with the Christian community in Kerala, a publication of the prominent Syro Malabar Catholic Church in the state has questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the attack on churches in Manipur and also accused the church leaders of Kerala of maintaining a soft approach on the issue.
"Why is that the Prime Minister who was very loquacious about the film The Kerala Story during the Karnataka election campaigns is silent about Manipur," asks the editorial of the latest issue of Sathyadeepam.
The publication also asks whether the church leaders in Kerala who met the Prime Minister in Kochi recently and termed the meeting as successful were still of the opinion that Christians are safe across the country.
Syro Malabar church head Cardinal Mar George Alencherry, who was among the selected church heads for the meeting with Modi in Kochi, is the patron of Sathyadeepam, which is considered as one of the largest circulated Christian publications in the country.
The editorial titled 'Manipurinte Murivukal' (Wounds of Manipur) also said that even as some church heads in Kerala and forums had reacted to the attack on churches at Manipur, these reactions came late and lacked intensity. There were even attempts to downplay the issue as a law and order breakdown. The church heads were reluctant to say that it was a genocide backed by the BJP government as planned by the Sangh Parivar that was happening in the Manipur.
The editorial also urged that a secular society has to ensure that figures such as Metropolitan Archbishop of Bangalore Peter Machado and Archbishop of Hyderabad Cardinal Poola Anthony, who strongly condemned the Manipur violence, were not alone.
BJP state general secretary George Kurian had recently told DH the Manipur issue might not affect the BJP's relation with Christian community as the clash in Manipur was not a communal one but clash between ethnic classes. He also alleged that other political parties were trying to project it as attack on churches with political motives.