Kerala’s Christians are pushing the envelope of vote-bank politics

There was a time once when almost the entire Christian community in Kerala voted for the Indian National Congress, and the Kerala Congress was the other beneficiary. Barring the rare exceptions, voting for the 'godless’ Communists was a taboo. The entry of the socialists tipped the Christians, albeit marginally. Once the Kerala Congress split in 1979 — and has been splitting constantly since then — and factions began supporting the Left, the lines got blurred.

The result: the priests could no longer hail fire and brimstone threats at the straying flock to stonewall the visibly rising ingress of Marxism. By the turn of the century, the Left ideology began finding increasing acceptance within the church, and in the past few elections, both to the Assembly and to Parliament, bore witness to this state of affairs. The role of the clergy in consolidating votes remained limited to subtle and sometimes not-too-subtle parish announcements (called idaya lekhanam in Malayalam) ahead of the polls.

But that is all in the past. With the Bhratiya Janata Party (BJP) actively wooing the Christians in Kerala, the many bishops representing various denominations of the community were bowled over by the charm offensive launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As a result, the church has started to send out warning signs by indicating that it is prepared to spread a propaganda video that portrays young Christian females as being in danger of converting to Islam through ‘love jihad’.

Consider this: The church and its many denominations were for many months much anguished by the persecutions of their brethren in Manipur as they were by Modi’s hands-off policy on the burning matter. Now, out of the blue, as it were, they are consumed by the urgency to educate their youth about the dangers of ‘love jihad’. Therefore, what else could be done but hold special screenings of the 2023 movie Kerala Story.

The movie claimed that about 32,000 Hindu and Christian girls from Kerala had been recruited by Islamic State, using ‘love jihad’ as the tool for their conversion to Islam — this was proven to be a gross exaggeration.

With the Idukki diocese of the Syro Malabar Catholic Church, which arguably accounts for over 2.3 million members, screening Kerala Story on April 4 for Class 10 and 12 students as part of its annual catechism programme, the church has finally announced that it will now take sides. This is obviously with an eye on political returns.

It was not a coincidence that this screening began with less than three weeks to go before the Lok Sabha polls in Kerala on April 26. Reiterating this resolve is the decision by the Kerala Catholic Youth Movement to hold more screenings in Thalassery and Thamarassery in north Kerala. Neither Idukki, nor Thalassery and Thamarassery (all three places have a sizeable Christian population) have so far seen any significant impact by the BJP.

Some entrenched leaders in the Christian community are trying in earnest to undo the political damage done by ‘Kerala Story’ by screening documentaries on the Manipur carnage, and thus channel the Christian votes back to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF). In the final analysis, though, it is unlikely that the electorate in Kerala is going to be unduly swayed by what they see onscreen.

With the church and its multiple organisations suddenly politically active, what are the reasons for such a development? The conspiracy theorists would argue that the Christians in Kerala are finally in sync with global geopolitics where the Christendom and Islamic world are sworn enemies. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Way more plausible would be the raw deal the Christian community claims has been handed out by both the UDF and the LDF governments who have both unerringly favoured the Muslim community over them. This, it is known, happens as much while allocating electoral seats as it does while handing out new academic plus-two courses in the Malabar region vis-à-vis those assigned to Christian management schools in central Travancore. The latter is where the money is, and that hurts the most.

Given these, why is it a surprise that Kerala’s Christians (at least a section among them) have finally woken up to the potential dividends that vote-bank politics yield? Being a late entrant in this game, the church lacks finesse in playing this game; give it time, and it will become more adept at it, and more demanding.

(Vinod Mathew is an author and senior journalist.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.