There seems to be a shocking trend developing under UPA rule. It seems now in every election Church is demanding seats for its nominees. In Kerala Loksabha election, Thrissur Archdiocese’s with the support of Kerala Catholic Bishop’s Council (KCBC) demanded that Congress should field Vadakkan as its candidate for Trissur. Inspite of stiff resistance by a section of state Congress leadership (read Hindu) congress agreed to churches demand. Similarly for the Ernakulam Lok Sabha seat, A letter was reportedly sent by the Varappuzha Archbishop to Congress president Sonia Gandhi recommending Hibi Eden.
In fact, KCBC went a step further by issuing a pastoral letter attacking the CPI(M) and the LDF and asked “believers” not to choose candidates “who impose atheism and politics of violence” or “those who promote the interests of a party or individuals over the interests of the people and the nation”. Archbishop of the Latin Catholic Church M. Soosa Pakiam told the faithful:
“Our symbol is the Cross. The candidates who are elected should not be those who insult the Church and the Christian faith.”
In a two front state like Kerala, Its a no brainer who the oblivious choice is if we takeout LDF from equation. Churches influence in elections in North East India is a open secret.
Now in Maharashtra elections, For the first time All India Christian Council, a conglomerate of all Christian denominations has asked a congress to give poll nominations to candidates from the community, and the party has obliged. Its not surprising they approached Sonia Gandhi requesting tickets for Christians. The Congress has accepted two of the council’s nine nominees, both political lightweights. Janet D’Souza has been fielded from Ghatkopar and advocate, Gonsalves from Vasai. The move was lead by Council secretary John Dayal a member of “National Integration Council”
Abraham Mathai, general secretary of the All India Christian Council, whose initials, AICC, are coincidentally the same as those of the All India Congress Committee said
“We had written to Sonia Gandhi early this month asking for deserving representation for Christians in the party’s candidate list, and we are extremely happy,”
As Mathai rightly pointed out Christians are considered fixed deposits for the Congress. Its time to get the interest!
5 comments:
we had of course also asked every other party, including the Sangh parivar associates, to give Christians, and other minorities, ample representation in their lists. Let us see if they have the honesty
Mr. Dayal but the news paper report clearly mentions that council has only written to congress as apparently congress is your "FD"
There is no point in giving tickets to minority poster boys.Sangh if and when it fields such candidates will look for a genuine leader..not just for the sake
Good spin Mr. Dayal, but on the contrary, it seems that AICC (both of which seem to have the same agenda anyway!) or you missed out on your "request" to Sanghies, like us, when you stated: "
“Christians have always been sidelined in the Congress because of the Christian background of its president. Scared that the RSS would link any Christian leader’s rise in the power hierarchy to that background, many Christian leaders have been deliberately kept low-key,
Christian Today dot in
Monday, 28 September 2009,
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It seems that Jesus Christ is awaiting a Messiah!
Either Mr Dayal's memory is not serving him right or all news agencies that have carried the story have turned his detractors for some reason known best to them. While several Christian representatives admit to have approached the Congress alone, only Mr Dayal has been quoted as saying that the All India Christian Council (AICC) had appealed "the heads of all political parties for adequate representation for Christians among candidates", vide this report in AsiaNews.
That the community had approached the Congress alone is documented in no less than the religion's mouthpiece, Christian Today - India. I quote three sentences from the report: "'We had written to Sonia Gandhi early this month asking for deserving representation for Christians in the party’s candidate list, and we are extremely happy,' the newspaper (The Telegraph) quoted Abraham Mathai of the AICC saying... The council chose Congress, he says, because Christians were traditional supporters of the party... 'Christians are considered fixed deposits for the Congress and not vote banks. Vote banks can shift their loyalty, but FDs never do that,' he said."
By the way, the original source, The Telegraph, edited by Aveek Sarkar, is a well-known Kolkata-based pro-Congress newspaper, and not some Hindu right wing pamphlet out to colour Sonia Gandhi's party in a parochial hue.
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