A senior bishop of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in Kerala took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a social media post on Tuesday, ahead of Christmas, sparking a controversy. Yuhanon Meletius, the Metropolitan bishop of the Thrissur diocese of the Church, wrote in Malayalam on Facebook, “There, bishops are revered and cribs are bowed to. Here, cribs are destroyed.
Isn’t there a phrase in Malayalam for such an action?” The bishop was referring to the Christmas event hosted by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) in Delhi on Monday, where the PM was the chief guest. Simultaneously, he pointed out the two separate incidents that took place at Palakkad district in Kerala, in which suspected Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) supporters allegedly attempted to disrupt Christmas celebrations at a government school on December 20, and a crib was found to be vandalised at another school on Monday. The Christian leader’s remarks came at a time when the BJP is conducting an outreach programme with a focus on the Christian community in Kerala and elsewhere.
Under the programme, BJP leaders and workers are heading to Christian homes across the state to convey Christmas greetings of the PM as part of its attempts to get closer to the community, which accounts for 18% of the state’s population. The incident involving VHP leaders took place at the Government Upper Primary School in Nallepilly where they allegedly questioned.