The Christian community has expressed strong opposition to a Kerala bishop’s open offer of a Lok Sabha seat to the BJP in return for a higher minimum support price (MSP) for rubber, with one organisation labelling it an act of “destroying the spirit” of a farmers’ movement.
The BJP has been given the support of Christian farmers by Archbishop Joseph Pamplany of the Archdiocese of Thalassery in exchange for the Government raising the MSP for rubber from its present level of Rs 170 to Rs 300.
Pamplany had made the statement at a farmers’ rally held by the All Kerala Catholic Congress, a laity organisation of the Syro Malabar Church, in Kannur in north Kerala on Saturday. “These settler farmers will erase your sorrow of not having a single MP (in Kerala) if you set the support price at Rs 300,” Pamplany had said.
“React politically for the survival of our settler farmers,” he had pleaded with the farmers.
Pamplany made his comments two days after being visited by a BJP party from Kannur. On Sunday, the group posted images from the meeting on its Facebook page and thanked Pamplany for his offer. Catholics make up the majority of the farmers in Kerala’s highlands in the Western Ghats, and even those in northern districts like Wayanad and Kannur are migrants from southern areas. They have always backed the UDF headed by the Congress and have significant political influence in these regions.
Pamplany stuck to his position even though the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Conference (KCBC) swiftly distanced itself from the archbishop’s invitation to the BJP. “Because the BJP controls the government, there is nothing that precludes us from communicating with them. The Church and its leaders have no problems communicating with the governing party. They have already discussed a number of things and will do so in the future, Pamplany told reporters on Sunday.
Shyju Antony, a representative for the well-known Christian organisation Almaya Munnetam (Laity Movement), told The Telegraph on Monday: “The Christian people would never listen to a bishop” (on political matters). And with this bishop’s comments, that movement has now lost its spirit. He is not a communal or political leader; rather, he is a spiritual leader. A bishop who ought to have talked like a spiritual leader instead sounded like a mediocre politician.
“The farmers are upset about real issues they have. Nevertheless, a bishop visits that location and turns it into a cheap political gimmick. In essence, the bishop went there and put an end to the farmers’ uprising itself. In order to preserve the integrity of the cause, Antony drew attention to how the national farmers’ protest against the three problematic agricultural laws implemented by the Narendra Modi administration had kept a safe distance from politicians. “They did not turn the movement into a forum to deal with politicians or sell their support to the Congress or the BJP in return for resolving their concerns.”
Pamplany’s assertion that he had only repeated the farmers’ opinions was refuted by Antony. “Farmers never said that. Such a claim is pure invention on his part. Because of this, even the KCBC choose to ignore what its own archbishop stated. Pamplany’s remarks came over a year after his inauguration, when V. Muraleedharan, a leader in the BJP and minister of state for foreign affairs and legislative affairs, alerted the public to the threat of Islamic radicalism on a global scale. For his comments, he had received harsh criticism.
On Monday, Pamplany was called “an affront” to the Christian community by the Joint Christian Council, which threatened to boycott him if the Church didn’t intervene to correct him. ‘Archbishop Pamplany has become an insult for the whole Christian community,’ the JCC said in a statement released on Monday. “The archbishop who was willing to arrange a deal for higher price of an agricultural commodity won’t hesitate to abandon even his belief system for a better bargain in the future,” the statement, signed by JCC president Felix Pulludan, stated.
Pamplany was reminded by Suresh Mathew, the head editor of Indian Currents, the magazine of the Capuchins of the Krist Jyoti Province in North India, that Christians don’t follow the advice of the clergy while casting their votes. “Voters are free to choose the party of their choice. Christian authorities must stand up for rights. Each farmer in the nation has a right to a fair price. Bishop Pamplany is unable to trade votes for 300 rupees each kilogramme of rubber. No Christian today would abide by the dictates of priests and bishops, Mathew said.