RELIGION & POLITICS

Can you mix religion with politics? Yes, you can, provided you don’t belong to the majority community. The taboo is only for Hindu religious heads. Reacting to the drubbing the Left got in Kerala, in particular, this is what a Church publication, “Sathyadeepam” said in its editorial:
“The Left parties paid for what they deserved. The Christians in the State were against the Left parties due to various reasons. Apart from Christians, other communities also used their votes to defeat the Left. When the Left tried to bag Muslim votes using various tactics and strategies, they also reacted against it. The Church is of the view that Hindus also voted against Left for almost same reasons. While analysing the election results, the party leaders should keep in mind the fact that people have turned against them”.

Had any Hindu religious head spoken in the same vein for the defeat of the so-called “secular” parties, there would have been predictable reaction. “Religious leaders should not dabble in politics” would have been the sermon. But in this case, how did the CPI-M react? The party buckled under Church pressure and wants a dialogue with the Clergy on the “various concerns of the Church”. A statement issued by the party said “The CPI-M and the Left Democratic Front Government is (sic) ready to hold talks with the Church leadership to resolve differences in the education and other sectors”.

Did any political party take note of the concern of the Hindu religious heads when they were crying for action against forced conversion, cow slaughter etc? Whenever they raised the topic of forced conversion which is nothing but a cultural rape, what they got in return from the secular political class was a liberal dose of advice on “Constitutional provision for freedom of religion” implying right to convert is an absolute right, reminder about our composite culture whatever it meant and a lecture on “inclusive politics”. All this rhetoric vanished when the Church started twisting the arms of the Left in Kerala especially after its electoral debacle and hence, it reneged for dialogue. Have you ever heard of the government – either Congress ruled or LDF ruled - trying to sit with the Hindu religious leaders in the state to discuss their concerns? Oh that would be blasphemous and indeed would smack of “communal” overtones. On the contrary there is so much of interference in the traditional practices of the temples in Kerala. In fact, our “secular” media made an attempt to question certain traditions followed in Sabarimala and Guruvayoor.

Forget about the “desi” version of secularism which distorted the very concept. Even if we go by the original intent , as we borrowed from the West, there has to be a clear demarcation between the Church and the State and one should not interfere with the other. What is happening in Kerala between the Church and the State is a gross violation of the original, may be Western, definition of secularism.

One of the proposals for the dialogue is the reconsideration of the idea of bringing Church properties under a Trust. This is very strange. Here is a government which controls all the Devaswoms in the State does not want to touch the Church properties. We are told quite often that Secularism enables the State to treat every religion alike and with the same respect or put it differently keep all of them at a safe distance. Then, why should the government have two different sets of rules for enforcing its own brand of secularism. Will the government come forward for a dialogue with the Hindu religious leaders if they insist that the government should keep off the Hindu temples and their properties?

Is the Church so powerful in Kerala where St Thomas is believed to have landed to spread the message of the Jesus? Yes, the Church has always played an active role in Kerala politics. Even during the recent Lok Sabha elections, the powerful Latin Catholic Church in Kerala reportedly sent a missive to the Congress President requesting her to consider a particular candidate as party candidate for the Ernakulam LS seat (Ernakulam is one of the districts in Kerala which has a predominantly Christian population) The letter also provided two more names – all belonging to the Latin Catholic Church – just in case the first name was not acceptable. During the poll campaign, the Church gave an open call to the Christian voters to vote against the LDF and teach them a lesson. Then, why do we find fault with Sangh Parivar when it campaigns for the BJP, though the Sangh is not the Hindu equivalent of the Church. Did the media focus on the Church’s interference in politics in Kerala even as it was so critical of saffronisation of politics elsewhere? The media bias against the majority community is quite obvious.

The church used the solemn Easter for the political campaign. A pastoral letter was issued on the eve of Good Friday attacking the CPI-M and the LDF. The reference was to the state government’s policies on education sector, especially on self-financing colleges which were minting money. All in the name of Constitutional guarantee of minority rights. If you travel in some of the districts of Kerala, you won’t get a feeling that Christians are a minority in the state. Instead, a feeling may sink in you that you are in a Christian theocratic state. I am at a loss to know why EMS Namboodiripad who carved out the first Muslim district – Malappuram – in Kerala did not think of Christian districts. In every village street corner Jesus beckons you with his characteristic open arms perched on a lavishly built abode. Economically also, Christians seem to have made themselves very comfortable and almost all the private transport is owned by the community.

Even in the case of family planning, the Church has a different viewpoint in complete deviation of the government policy and public mood. The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council gave a call for creating awareness on the need to do away with birth control methods. It wants to support families with more children in a bid to counter a decline in the Christian population in Kerala. Do you remember the reaction from media and the “secular” polity when former RSS chief made a similar suggestion? Oh, hell broke loose.

If you take Muslim majority Kashmir and possibly Assam waiting to become a Muslim majority state, sooner than later, Christian majority North East and more or less equal demographic ratio among Christians and Muslims in Kerala, we must have state-specific norm for defining majority or minority. It will be ridiculous to call Christian community as minority in Kerala. Politically, socially and economically, they don’t need any Constitutional props. Such a guarantee has only been abused by certain sections to promote self interests. As the categorisation of BCs varies from state to state and district to district, so should the categorisation of religious groups into majority or minority vary depending on the local factors.