New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s attempts to woo the Christian community in Kerala have suffered a major blow after the head of the Latin church in Thiruvananthapuram told the Good Friday gathering that attacks against Christians in the country witnessed a sharp rise after 2014. He rued inadequate interventions by the authorities to stop these atrocities, reports The Telegraph.
Thomas J. Netto’s speech matters in a state where a significant section of the Christian population belongs to the Latin denomination. The state has never elected a BJP MP in its history.
“Christians face extremely cruel attacks by dark forces in several parts of the country, especially north India and Manipur. While there were 147 attacks against Christians in the country in 2014, it rose to 687 in 2023. Yet, there are no effective interventions from the authorities against this,” archbishop Thomas J. Netto of the Latin Archdiocese of Trivandrum said in his address at St Joseph’s Cathedral. He urged the Christian community to stay united and “understand the importance of taking a stand against evil forces responsible for these attacks”.
He reminded Christians that they were not alone in their journey. “We need to travel along with our brethren who endure similar pain. We need to resist and defeat the narrow-mindedness that gives rise to legislation like the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act).”
“As Christians, we have to be united in our journey to ensure the protection of minority rights, communal harmony and freedom of speech enshrined in the Indian Constitution,” he added.
The archbishop from one of the most powerful churches in Kerala urged the community to “identify the efforts underway to create communal divisions in a secular democratic system”. “Secularism, freedom, equality and brotherhood that is upheld by the Constitution must be protected at all times,” he said.
He noted how the rich were getting richer in the changed economic environment in the country. “The mindset of dominance is really helping the exploiters. The nation’s wealth is being concentrated in the hands of a few. Because of this, the working class that forms the majority, such as fisherfolk, tribals, farmers, construction workers and others remain poor. Such disparity in wealth is not good for a democratic society,” he said.
“We also need to utilise the opportunities to express our opinions against this,” he said, without explicitly mentioning the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as an opportunity for the community to express their opinions. The Lok Sabha elections in Kerala are scheduled on April 26.
