T’PURAM/KOTTAYAM: On a day the Nair Service Society extended support to Pala Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt on his ‘love jihad’ and ‘narcotic jihad’ remarks, the Congress and BJP recalibrated their positions on Monday, goading the ruling LDF to declare its opinion on the matter in clear terms.
While senior BJP leaders paid the bishop a solidarity visit and said the concerns raised would be brought to the notice of the Centre, the Congress adopted a more nuanced approach than its severe criticism of the bishop in the last two days. Opposition leader VD Satheesan and party state president K Sudhakaran called for the immediate intervention of the LDF government to keep communal harmony intact in the state.
The intervention of top Congress leaders came after mudslinging on social media platforms over the controversial ‘narcotic jihad’ remarks made by Bishop Kallarangatt worsened. They acknowledge that both Christians and Muslims, who are parties to the controversy, form the traditional vote bank of UDF. Alleging that the state government was scared to intervene in the burning issue, Satheesan said social media is flooded with false campaigns launched from fake IDs of persons who want to create divide, grudge and mistrust among members of different religions.
Terrorism of forced conversions a matter of concern, says NSS
“One can suspect that these fake IDs have unleashed the campaigns to disrupt the communal harmony in the state. Police should probe this seriously. The CM should direct the cyber police to identify all such elements and bring them before law,” Satheesan wrote in a letter to the chief minister. He said if any community organisation or its leaders raise a particular complaint or expressed their apprehensions, those should also be brought under the ambit of the probe.
Satheesan, who promised all support to attempts to protect the peaceful atmosphere and communal harmony in the state, found fault with the ambiguous stand of CPM on the issue. Sudhakaran urged the government to convene a meeting of all political parties and religious organisations to discuss the issue.
Urging the secular and democratic people to wake up from lethargy and oppose the moves to force the RSS agenda on the state, Sudhakaran said, “There is an attempt from vested interests to disrupt communal harmony in the state. That is why extremist overtones are being attributed to the Pala bishop's statements and debated continually to keep the issue alive. BJP has taken it as a 'golden chance' after its dismal failure in the elections and are trying to make inroads into a minority community to reap benefits,” Sudhakaran said in a statement.
On Monday, NSS general secretary G Sukumaran Nair also supported the concerns expressed by the bishop. “It is a matter of grave concern that terrorist activity in the form of forced religious conversion is taking place by misleading women using love and other baits in several places. But it is not right to point fingers at a community or caste for such crimes. Governments at the Centre and state have the responsibility to act sternly against such actions,” Sukumaran Nair said in a statement.
NSS also cautioned against the forces which try to promote hatred among communities and called for united efforts cutting across caste and religion lines to resist such attempts.BJP, which realised the opportunity, deputed a delegation comprising former state president P K Krishnadas and general secretary A N Radhakrishnan to convey party's solidarity with Bishop Kallarangatt. Krishnadas later said the issues raised by the bishop would be brought to the Centre's notice. He also demanded a probe into the issues flagged by the bishop. The state government which has taken a cautious approach is learnt to have decided to wait and watch how the issue unfolds. CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran said LDF hasn't discussed the issue.