In the wake of the passage of the Wakf (Amendment) Bill by Parliament, the BJP appeared to have succeeded in making inroads into the Christian community’s votes in Kerala. In fact, BJP state president Rajiv Chandrashekhar was given a warm welcome by a section of Christian community in Munambam in Ernakulam district. The BJP and Union Minister Kiren Rijiju had raised hopes among the 600-odd Christian families in Munambam who are locked in a legal battle with the Kerala Wakf Board(KWB) which has staked a claim to their property on the ground that the property belonged to it. The Union Minister even visited Munambam to curry favour with the Christian families.

The BJP had raised their hopes initially by claiming that the Bill, when it becomes a law, would have a retrospective effect benefiting them. As a matter of fact, the BJP had succeeded in getting the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) into supporting the Wakf (Amendment) Bill on that ground. But the Munambam Christians have realized, albeit a bit late in the day, that the Law would not benefit them. Rijiju himself candidly admitted that all that the law would do is to help the Munambam residents in their legal battle with the KWB. The Christian families are angry now having realized that they have been taken for a massive ride b y the B JP and the Union Government.

As if this was not enough, the RSS added fuel to the fire by publishing two back-to-back articles in its mouthpiece Organiser targeting the Christian community and the church. The brief honeymoon was over and the political chicanery of the BJP-RSS combine has reignited the wrath of the Christian community. Significant is the timing of the articles, which have since been withdrawn following the uproar they have created, immediately after the passage of the Wakf (Amendment) Bill in Parliament. But the damage has been done. The timing of the publication of the article is certainly a matter of concern, admitted official spokesman of the KCBC Father Thomas Tharayil.

The article had claimed that the land owned by the Catholic Church in India far surpasses Waqf properties in the country. The article had also said that the British rulers had leased nearly seven crore hectares of land to the Church, and points out that an yet-to-be enforced 1965 rule renders colonial-era charters, bequests, leaseholds and rental agreements redundant. The Bill passed by the Parliament entitles the Union Government to regulate Muslim religious endowments for educational and charitable purposes. Of course, the intervention by the apex court has prevented the Government from going ahead with immediate implementation of the law. The SC will resume hearing on the issue on May 5.

The Opposition parties have strongly condemned the Union Government’s move to wrest control of the Church properties. They say that after the Muslims, the Modi Government is now targeting the Christians as a part of their anti-minority agenda.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, LOP in Kerala VD Satheesan and the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) said the articles bare the true intentions of the BJP-RSS: minority-baiting. Vijayan saw a grand plan to target the minority groups one by one and destroy them step by step. The BJP Government is undermining the protection guaranteed by the Constitution to the minorities in the country.

In an editorial, the Church-run Deepika said though the RSS had withdrawn the articles the Organiser has not yet acknowledged that the information it published is wrong. “It is not just about the articles that the RSS has withdrawn or disowned. The very ideas it upholds and the actions it continues to carry out are detrimental to the sense of equal citizenship of minorities in the country, including Christians. The piece also highlights the ongoing attacks on Christians in Northern India, besides criticising the silence of the Union Government, which is emboldening the perpetrators of violence against the Christian community, it argues.

Additionally, India Currents, a publication under the patronage of the Capuchins of the Krist Jyothi province of Northern India, a religious congregation, echoes the growing fears of the Church. “Many groups, even some that shouldn’t, are celebrating this as a victory. But is it truly a win, or merely the experimental beginning of a nightmare,” asks an editorial.

A cumulative effect of all this has been that the BJP’s pain staking efforts to make greater in roads into the Christian vote-bank in the State has run into major roadblocks. And, not surprisingly, both the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-headed United Democratic Front (UDF) are happy over the BJP’s acute discomfiture over the issue. Both are sure that the section of Christians which had walked into the BJP’s trap, will retrace their steps, now that the saffron party’s fraud has been exposed. (IPA Service)