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PM Modi’s visits, BJP’s Sneh Yatra: How saffron woos Kerala
The party drew a blank in the 2019 LS polls and the 2021 assembly elections. Here’s how it is trying to make a mark in 2024 in the southern state
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Sneha Yatra, aimed at the Christian community, has drawn mixed reactions — surprise from some quarters, and keen interest from some others.
On the face of it, the yatra was organised by Kerala BJP party President K Surendran to meet senior leaders of the Christian community to convey Prime Minister Modi’s Christmas and New Year wishes. The yatra, which took place from December 20 to 30, 2023, was a clear attempt by the BJP to dispel the negative perception among members of the laity, and certainly a narrative touted by the Congress and the Communist Party (Marxist) in Kerala, that it is anti-minority.
Earlier this week, a prominent leader PC George announced that he will merge his party — the Kerala Janapaksham (Secular) — with the BJP. Union minister V Muraleedharan said that his entry dispelled the notion that the BJP is "anti-minority" while Union minister Prakash Javadekar hinted that more Kerala leaders will join the party in the future. George, who has been part of the Christian party Kerala Congress (Mani), was part of the Congress-led UDF government between 2011 and 2015 and is a seven-time MLA from Poonjar constituency. He reportedly said that decided to join the BJP after holding discussions with representatives of churches in Kerala. His son, Shone, a Kottayam district panchayat member, also joined the BJP.
George’s party was part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, but left after differences cropped up; he has been at the centre of many controversies over his comments against Muslims, raising in particular, the sceptre of love jihad.
“Our idea was to build a socio-cultural bond,” said BJP’s state president, K Surendran.
“We went to more than 800,000 Christian homes and we saw a positive impact. From Kasargod in the north to Thiruvananthapuram in the south, we toured the homes of the marginalised communities to address issues of livelihood and understand their problems.” Net-making fishermen, coir-weavers, Vishwakarma workers, and others belonging to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) were also part of the BJP’s outreach, he added.
These calculated moves, quite naturally, have earned the BJP the wrath of both the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led (United Democratic Front).
A day after PM Modi met Christian leaders for Christmas in Delhi, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said there was a greater motive behind this friendship. The Congress leader of opposition VD Satheesan called the BJP a wolf in sheep’s clothing and called the Sneha Yatra Judas’s “Kiss of Death”, a biblical reference to an act of betrayal.
Through its outreach programme and padayatra, the BJP has tried to project itself as a party with an inclusive political approach at least in Kerala. The party, which has come up nil in both the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2021 assembly polls, continues to make an effort in Kerala — with a large minority religious population — buoyed by its success in Goa, Meghalaya, and Mizoram, also heavily Chrisitian-dominated.
From undertaking padayatras to having sit-down meetings with the Kerala Council of Churches, both the central and the state units of the BJP have been actively courting the Christian community, particularly since April 2023, when Modi paid a visit to the state and met bishops of various Church denominations.
Father Dr Antony Vadakkerkara VC of the Syro-Malabar Church in Kochi said, “We welcome leaders from all political parties although we keep a clear distance and a healthy margin from them. We do not have an affinity to any party but we do wholeheartedly support the development of all. We are for human-oriented development and the Church will support and extend our cooperation to the government irrespective of their colour.”
Also read: The role of the Church in Kerala’s politics
Outreach efforts
BJP's outreach is not an eleventh-hour move.
Back in 2019, senior Church leaders began to use the term, love jihad, to talk of young Christian girls being lured into Islam by boys who were indoctrinated by the militant ISIS group. The Bishop from Palai came out strongly saying the intention of the Muslim youth was suspect. The conflict between Palestine and Israel has also been an isolating experience for Christians in Kerala, several leaders from the Church said. As the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) announced their support for Palestine, and expressed their sympathy for Gaza, many in the community backed Israel. The Church views the accentuating anti-Israel sentiment in Kerala to be a manifestation of political Islam.
A senior journalist with Mathrubhumi, one of the leading newspapers in Kerala pointed to a recent factor that has soured relationships between the two minority communities. “After the Karnataka election, the Congress has been increasingly declaring its affection for the Muslims almost entirely crediting them for the thumping victory in the state. They don't realise that a good number of Christians in Mangalore and other parts of South Canara have voted for them as well. So they have every reason to feel slighted when the Indian Union Muslim League in Kerala is being given an upper hand and more space in Kerala politics.”
“The Christians are as casteist as the Hindus. While Syro-Malabar Catholics and the other sects of Catholics dominate the political position of the Church in Kerala, the BJP's outreach has also been to the Savarna Christians, or the Neo Christians who are aspiring to be counted among the upper caste Christians. It is the children of these poorer Christians who are trained and sent away to work in smaller chapels in interior Kerala," an academician said.
Numerically speaking, Christians in Kerala account for nearly 19% of the population with the Church-goers residing in large parts of central Kerala. The electoral victories of the five districts of Ernakulam, Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Kottayam, which have 42 assembly constituencies, dictate the nature of the Christian vote. The same 2011 census pegs the Hindus at 54.73% and Muslims at 26.6% of the population. So, together, Hindus and Christians make up 73.11%. With the community having a say over nearly eight parliamentary constituencies in the Central region of the state, the academician quoted above said, “The Christians might vote out the CPM government because there is so much anger against the chief minister and his daughter Veena Vijayan over several scams that Central agencies are looking into.”
Economic concerns
The community is looking to the Centre for economic support. Thalassery Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany openly assured his support for the BJP saying that the community would vote the saffron party into power if the procurement price of rubber grown in the state is made ₹300/ kilogram. Other projects announced in the state have resonated well with the community, political scientist G Gopakumar said. PM Modi had announced projects worth ₹4,000 crore during his January 16-17 visit to Kochi. He also announced Vande Bharat trains — railway services have been a long pending demand.
Several in the laity and even leaders of the community are also vocally anti-BJP.
"It is unlikely that the Catholics in Kerala will shift their political preference en masse to the BJP and Sangh Parivar, which are practising the politics of hate. There is no apparent need for such a shift," Fr Paul Thelakkatt, a senior priest of the Ernakulam-Angamaly diocese told HT last year.
The bone of contention is the Manipur violence against the Christians. Much as the Sena Yatra has tried to build bridges, the lack of action against violent protestors in Manipur has drawn much criticism. Father Dr Antony of the Syro-Malabar Church in Kochi said, “In so many months, the PM has made visits to many states and constituencies, but has never visited Manipur even once. It is deeply painful for every Christian in Kerala.”
“The Christian community is in a fix after Manipur and other incidents of sporadic violence in Madhya Pradesh against Christians. It is this proverbial thorn in the flesh that the BJP has to consciously address for it to win the support of the Christians who have now lowered their anti-Modi stance in the state,” Gopakumar said.
