A statement by an Arch Bishop of Roman Catholic church in Thalassery, Mar Joseph Pamplani has stirred a big controversy. He said, “the believers of the church will help the BJP to elect its first MP from the state if the union government raises the price of natural rubber to ₹300 per kg.”
Addressing a meeting of the Catholic farmers’ conference on Sunday in north Kerala town the Bishop said there was no need to keep the country’s ruling party away from the church. “The church has no aversion or untouchable attitude towards the BJP. After all it is ruling party of the country. If the framers’ problems are addressed, we will vote for BJP,” he said. Natural rubber is priced between ₹130 and ₹150 now and he wanted the Centre to hike it to ₹300 per kg. If the Union government raised the price of rubber the church will naturally help the BJP to elect a member of parliament from the state, the Bishop said.
“Is there a situation that we cannot talk to the BJP? We normally won’t support any party. At the same time BJP is not untouchable for us. Be it the union or state government we will stand with those who support farmers,” he said adding there is no need to misinterpret it as an alliance between the church and the BJP. He said he was only talking about the mounting plight of farmers of hilly areas. He said low price of rubber and recurring wild animal incursions have made their life miserable.
While the CPI(M) and Congress criticised the Bishop’s statement the BJP welcomed it. “Nobody will keep a hen with fox. How can the church support protagonists of Hindu rastra,”? asked Minister for Local Self Government M B Rajesh. “Hope the Bishop had forgotten about the attack against church and priests in north Indian states. We have no idea on which context the made such a statement,” said AICC general secretary K C Venugopal.
{{/usCountry}}While the CPI(M) and Congress criticised the Bishop’s statement the BJP welcomed it. “Nobody will keep a hen with fox. How can the church support protagonists of Hindu rastra,”? asked Minister for Local Self Government M B Rajesh. “Hope the Bishop had forgotten about the attack against church and priests in north Indian states. We have no idea on which context the made such a statement,” said AICC general secretary K C Venugopal.
{{/usCountry}}But the BJP lauded his statement. “We welcome his statement. In Christian- majority north-eastern states, the party notched a big win, and we hope it will reflect in Kerala too,” party state president K Surendran adding the party will take up rubber farmers’ plight with the union government. He also criticised the Congress and CPI (M) for instilling a “fear psychosis” in minority communities to keep them as mere vote bank.