By Jose Kavi
New Delhi, March 19, 2023: Catholics across India have reacted angrily to an archbishop in Kerala, who has offered conditional support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that heads the federal coalition government.
Archbishop Joseph Pamplany of Tellicherry on March 18 assured the BJP at least one seat from the southern Indian state if the federal government raises the price of rubber to 300 rupees.
The Syro-Malabar prelate was addressing a farmers’ rally at Alakode, a village in the eastern region of Kerala’s Kannur district where rubber is the main crop.
The Hindu nationalist BJP currently has no parliamentary or legislative seat in Kerala, where Christians form more than 18 percent of 35.77 million.
Archbishop Pamplany’s statement “cannot be accepted as the stand of Christians in Kerala, though there have been attempts by Christian leaders to align with the BJP,” says Father Suresh Mathew, editor of Indian Currents weekly.
Referring to the prelate’s assurance, John Dayal of the 104-year-old All India Catholic Union (AICU), the largest laity organization in the country, asks: “Are the Catholic votes in Kerala available to the highest bidder?”
AICU’s March 19 statement asserts that voting should not be based on short term benefits, but on what is beneficial to the nation.
“The archbishop’s statement, which surely does not have the support even of the other bishops in the state of Kerala, is similar to taking money for votes,” says Dayal, the AICU spokesperson.
A C Michael, president of the Catholic federations of the Delhi archdiocese, says the archbishop has a choice to resign as a priest and join a political party if he is interested in politics.
“Everyone in our democracy has a right to choose someone as his legislative or parliamentary representative. The same is applicable to Archbishop Joseph Pamplany of Tellicherry. But the moment he is imposing his thinking on others he has crossed the line of democracy,” Michael told Matters India.
The Indian Catholic Forum (ICF), another laity group, says it is “aghast and astounded” at the archbishop’s purported statement.
“It would seem that the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala, that was once the pride of the community, has now hit the pits, thanks to an arrogant hierarchy and an ignorant and somnambulant laity. This, despite a 2,000-year heritage,” laments forum’s national convener chhotebhai.
“Who is the archbishop to assure votes to the BJP, for whatever reason? Judas sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Wonder what the price of rubber was at that time?” the lay leader asks.
The ICF statement says the Kerala hierarchy “in particular seems to be more concerned about protecting its institutional and financial wealth, rather than considering the interests of the common person.”
However, Ignatius Gonsalves, a Kochi-based senior journalist, says Archbishop Pamplany is justified in highlighting the sad plight of farmers, particularly the rubber farmers.
“His spirited plea and relentless campaign for redressal are laudable too. But the barter offer that he makes to the BJP deserves nothing but outright condemnation,” Gonsalves says. .
He regrets that the prelate seems “least bothered about the larger Indian realities and the general interests of the Church in India. It is quite disturbing that Mar Pamplany continues to defend his position with enhanced vehemence.”
Carmelite Missionaries Sister Manju Devarapalli, secretary of the National Dalit Christian Watch, says Archbishop Pamplany has “stooped below an average human, leave aside a Christian” with his support to the BJP.
“Pope Francis asks bishops to smell the sheep but he smells a thief. A corrupt archbishop is a scandal. He must be stripped off his position,” she asserts.
Father Mathew regrets that the Christian religious leaders in Kerala have little idea about the ideology behind the BJP, the “political face” of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the umbrella organization of Hindu nationalist groups. “Their ultimate intention is to establish Hindu Rashtra (nation,” Father Mathew told Matters India on March 19.
The priest points out that the official Church teachings do not allow alignment with any political party. “Individuals have freedom to vote for the party they like. Today, no Christian will follow the diktat of priests and bishops,” he adds.
Father Mathew finds it strange that the prelate only favor rubber farmers whereas Kerala people in the state grow coconuts, cardamom, pepper, arecanut and other cash crops. “Christian leaders can demand fair prices for all farm products. Why does he limit to one product? To get a fair price is the right of farmers,” the priest says.
The editor says none can ignore the escalating violence against Christians in various parts of India. He wants the archbishop to ask why the number of attacks on Christian communities has 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? What is the logic in enacting anti-conversion laws when the Christian population remains stagnant in the country and hardly any conviction takes place in such cases? More importantly, what is the justification for denying religious freedom, granted in the Constitution of India, using the bogey of forced conversion?” Father Mathew asks.
Archbishop Pamplany’s statement came two weeks after 93 former civil servants wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about recent increase in attacks on Christians in India. Banded under the Constitutional Conduct Group, the bureaucrats, urged Modi in their March 4 open letter to reassure Christians in the country that it will get equal and unbiased treatment from administration and the law.
The archdiocese of Tellicherry has spearheaded the Kerala farmers’ demand fair price for their crops for more than a year. Hundreds of thousands had attended a rally last in Kannur town, but the media overlooked the event.
“Archbishop Pamplany took the BJP name this time and the entire media fell for it,” says an observer.
Baby Manayanickal, a rubber farmer in Kannur’s Pottenplavu village, says the rubber price has remained around 150 rupees for the past 18 years.
K J Antony, another farmer, says his archbishop has raised a serious concern of farmers, but it is up to the people whom they vote. “We have never voted according to what our priests or bishops have said,” he told Matters India.
https://mattersindia.com/2023/03/kerala-archbishops-assurance-to-bjp-irks-christians/
By chhotebhai
Kanpur, March 20, 2023: The Indian Catholic Forum (ICF) is aghast and astounded at the purported recent statement of Archbishop Joseph Pamplany of Tellicherry, Kerala, that the Christians of Kerala would support the BJP if it increased the price of rubber to 300 rupees per kilo.
It would seem that the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala, that was once the pride of the community, has now hit the pits, thanks to an arrogant hierarchy and an ignorant and somnambulant laity. This, despite a 2,000-year heritage.
Who is the archbishop to assure votes to the BJP, for whatever reason? Judas sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Wonder what the price of rubber was at that time?
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated instance of Christians cozying up to the BJP. The Kerala hierarchy in particular seems to be more concerned about protecting its institutional and financial wealth, rather than considering the interests of the common person.
However, this phenomenon is not restricted to Kerala. In the last two elections we have seen Catholic legislators in Goa immediately switching loyalties and joining the BJP to share the loaves of office and to protect their personal fiefdoms. Today money is the unabashed goddess of the politicians.
Goans are supposed to be highly educated and liberal thinkers. But they make for dumb politics. Recent elections in Christian majority states in the North East like Nagaland and Meghalaya are another case in point. Meghalaya’s re-elected Chief Minister Conrad Sangma belongs to an old Congress family and is a Catholic. Could he not have formed a government without the support of two measly BJP legislators? Shame.
It was déjà vu in Nagaland where the regional party joined hands with the BJP to form the government. We know that the North East is heavily dependant on Central funding so tends to kowtow to the party in power in the Centre. But I am here reminded of one of the seven social sins identified by Mahatma Gandhi – “Politics without principles.” He had also repeatedly warned that the means do not justify the ends.
At its recent meeting in Varanasi the ICF had reaffirmed its commitment to a secular society. Papers on Anti-conversion laws and the Saffronisation of the North East were presented. How the BJP is using every trick in the book to harass and persecute Christians is well documented. If bishops in Kerala and Christian politicians in Goa or the North East are cozying up to the BJP for short term gains they need to know the long term repercussions of their myopic actions. .
The Christian community in India needs to be ever vigilant and not fall into the BJP trap. As scripture warns “Your enemy the devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom it may devour.”
(chhotebhai is the convener of the Indian Catholic Forum)
https://mattersindia.com/2023/03/bishops-and-bjp/.
Kerala Archbishop’s Politically Elastic Rubber
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!
https://mattersindia.com/2023/03/kerala-archbishops-politically-elastic-rubber/
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