By P A Chacko
Sahibganj, March 19, 2023: The Metropolitan Archbishop of Tellicherry Mar Joseph Pamplany’s unexpected overture to the BJP to help to get a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala at the 2024 General Elections is a politically opportunistic public statement.
“If the government raises the price of rubber to 300 rupees per kilo, the Church will help the BJP in Kerala and will overcome the situation of the BJP not having an MP from the state.” He also said, “The Church does not practice untouchability.” In other words, the Church doors are open also to the BJP if financial consideration is taken into account.
It is no secret that, in preparation for the forthcoming 2024 General Elections, BJP functionaries from the Modi-Sha combine to the BJP footsoldier battalion are wooing the Kerala Christians from ‘palace to palace’ and door to door to beg, crawl and plead for the Christian vote.
And, who else but a ‘Prince’ of the Kerala Catholic Church, Archbishop Pamplany appears to have bit the hook. As if advocating for the rubber farmers, his elastic exercise of flaunting a piece of rubber as bargain for voting the BJP has disastrous consequences.
Capuchin Father Suresh Mathew, Indian Currents editor, points out that the bishop’s public statement is a blunder if he had made it as a representative of the Church. Promising Christian votes in exchange for raising rubber price is equal to “Note for vote.” No bishop or a priest has any authority to say in such manner, says Father Suresh in an interview to Asianet channel.
In Indian Currents’ Hot News, Father Suresh writes: “In the background of escalating violence against Christians, one cannot turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to certain piercing questions that would probably hit the nail on the issue. Why has the number of attacks on Christian communities skyrocketed after the Modi government came to power? What is the strategy of the BJP in wooing Christians in some parts of the country while targeting them brutally in other places?”
According to V D Sateesan, Congress leader and leader of the opposition in the Legislative Assembly in Kerala, within last four years more than 500 Christian churches have been attacked by the Sangh Parivar factions in different parts of the country.
Aren’t the Kerala “Princes” like Pamplany not aware of the spine chilling atrocities against Christians in central and northern India? Or, are they in their cozy palatial world looking for monetary benefits even at the cost of betraying persecuted Christians?
News about religiously and politically motivated violence against Christians by the Hindu nationalists has been pouring in endlessly. Human Rights Watch has pointed out that the acts of violence include arson of churches, conversion of Christians by force (in the name of ‘Ghar wapsi’), physical violence, destruction of Christian schools, colleges and cemeteries, ostracism of poor Tribal Christians and the like.
The National Commission for minorities is said to have on its list reports of more than a hundred religiously motivated attacks against Christians each year.
Does the Metropolitan Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany play ignorant of such facts? Or, given the fact that he is a well know writer, versatile orator, author of more than 30 books and 300 articles, he cannot be a person who could venture into blunderland.
Yet, it is not a small blunder on his part that he seems to ignore such facts by promising to energize the little noticed saffron presence in God’s own land. And, given the Saffron Parivar’s ‘jumlabaji’ gimmicks, it may even tempt him with an irresistible saffron cassock. And that may prove to be a highway to hell!
Hi, Dear Bishop should contest in election on seat sharing formulas with BJP to overthrow the wicked elements of LDF, UDF n. to form for a new power center in state
Mr Lobo is dead right in his observation: “Let the Catholic Church first treat all Catholics as equal citizens.” It is cold truth. Most bishops and parish priests go out of their way to woo moneyed people, especially those in seats of power. One can easily see the flush on their faces when they cosy in to the elite class. They may use this uninhibited love as an excuse for their honest endeavour to garner moolah for the welfare of the needy!
Regarding Father Suresh’s (Indian Current Editor-in-chief) observation on “escalating violence against Christians” he has not given any statistics and their source. In the absence of this, his outburst is tantamount to stoking fire. Also doesn’t the church always look to profit from persecution? In Kolkata one well-known bishop told me during a protest rally at 7-point-crossing Park Circus against attacks on churches in 2014 that the church grows only when the faithful shed their blood. When I asked him what about bishops taking the lead in this, he excused himself!
However, Fr Suresh is 100% right in his stand that the Metropolitan Archbishop of Tellicherry Mar Joseph Pamplany (what a big honorific!) has no authority, as a representative of the Church, to promise Christian votes to BJP. Voters have full constitutional freedom to exercise their voting rights of their own free will. Who is the Archbishop to promise votes on their behalf? He is also correct that the Archbishop should not have come out in the open wooing a deal with the BJP. His demeanour gives the impression he might have already sold himself at a much higher price than Judas did.
By the way, Archbishop Joseph Pamplany’s overtures will certainly bolster up Cardidnal Allencherry and Franco Mulakkal. They might seek many secret parleys with NDA powers-that-be to strike a deal for their exoneration from the ongoing court cases – the former from the seven criminal cases and the chastisement of the Supreme Court; and the latter from nun rape case (Review Petition) in Kerala High Court. Who knows even Bp K.A. William might also jump in to fish in troubled water?
Archbishop Pamplany is pleading for better agriculture prices for the farmers. Most of the farmers in his area are Catholics. So he is trying to help his people and I do not see anything wrong in it.
The issue of atrocities against Christians in North Indian States needs a detailed discussion especially the division of Catholics into Latin and Syro-Malabar, etc. There is widespread discrimination by the Latin Church against Syro Malabar Catholics in North Indian States. Let the Catholic Church first treat all Catholics as equal citizens, and then we can talk about atronicities against Christians.