Anil Antony to share dais with PM in Kochi youth event
BJP leaders feel Anil’s presence at the national level will help the party corner the Congress and make better understanding with the Christian community
Thiruvananthapuram: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend an interactive session with youngsters under a programme called “Vibrant youth for modifying India” (Yuvam) in Kochi on April 25 and Anil Antony, Congress leader A K Antony’s son who joined the Baratiya Janata Party on Thursday, will also attend the event, said BJP state leaders.
Got a good chance to corner the Congress, the party is planning to use the youngster, a Standford University and MIT graduate, to build bridges with youth and Christian community in particular, the leaders said adding around 100,000 people will attend the event.
Shocked over the exit of Anil Antony on Thursday, the Congress has given strict instructions to party workers to ignore it. The party is planning a grand reception to its leader Rahul Gandhi when he visits his former constituency Wayanad next week to tide over the embarrassment.
BJP state president K Surendran said Anil Antony’s entry was just the beginning and more leaders will join the party soon. “You will hear more such news in coming weeks,” he said. There is a strong speculation that Anil will be accommodated in an important post soon.
BJP leaders feel Anil’s presence at the national level will help the party corner the Congress and make better understanding with the Christian community. As the party is locked in a fierce fight with the Congress in neighbouring Karnataka, they feel it will also help in allaying the fear among the minority community to an extent.
Another senior BJP leader, who did not want to be named, said the party will also exploit the community’s growing fear over “Islamic fundamentalism” and issues like “love jihad.” Two years back Pala Bishop Mar Joseph Kalaranghatt had said that after “love jihad” Catholic youth and girls were becoming “victims of a well-orchestrated narcotic jihad.” Love jihad is a term coined by some right-wing groups to explain union between Muslim men and women belonging to other communities. The bishop’s statement had triggered a controversy and later a case was registered against him.
Two months back another Christian priest had offered an olive branch to the BJP. Thalassery (north Kerala) Arch Bishop of Mar Joseph Pamplani had given an offering that if the union government raises the natural rubber’s price to ₹300 a kilogram, believers will help the BJP elect its first MP from the state. It stirred up a hornet’s nest as the Congress and CPI(M) joined hands to list recent attacks on minority institutions and fate meted out to Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest who died in judicial custody two years ago.
But the BJP shot back saying both parties always instilled “a fear psychosis” and asked community members to take a leaf out of the recent victory in north-eastern states where Christians are a majority. After victory in north-eastern states, in which the party won three out of four states, the PM had said Kerala will be next on the party’s agenda.