By Liz Mathew, IANS
New Delhi : Eager to oust the Left in the next elections, the Congress in Kerala is actively wooing the influential Christian community in the state. Christian leaders are ready to be friends again – on their terms.
Community leaders have made it crystal clear to Congress emissaries who have held talks in recent times that they want certain demands to be met if they are to back the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).
Christians constitute almost a fifth of Kerala’s 30 million people and have traditionally been diehard Congress supporters. That began to change in the 1980s when the Church ruled that believers could choose between the UDF and the Communist-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), the two main groupings in the state.
The Congress is eager to find its feet in Kerala after the UDF lost in all but one of the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in 2004. Two years later, the LDF captured 100 of the 140 assembly seats, trouncing the UDF.
When central Home Minister Shivraj Patil – believed to be close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi – visited Kerala last week, Christian leaders put up a string of demands.
They wanted a committee to study the conditions of the Christian community, especially the Dalit Christians, and sought more freedom to run their famed educational and health institutions.
There were also complaints about restrictions on foreign funds inflow for such institutions.
Patil apparently told them that he would convey their grievances to Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Church sources told IANS.
Patil, who inaugurated the Heart Institute of the Pushpagiri Medical College of Malankara Catholic Church in Thiruvalla, reportedly told them that there would be no trouble on the foreign funds front as long as they are properly accounted for, sources close to the minister said.
At a dinner hosted by Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference (KCBC) chairman Archbishop Daniel Acharuparampil, Christian leaders pointed out that Catholic-run educational institutions in the state were facing trouble from successive governments since former Congress chief minister A.K. Antony (now defence minister) decided to set up a 50:50 norm for admissions into them.
The then Antony government had directed private professional colleges to allot 50 percent seats on merit with fees comparable to those in government professional institutions. The other half could be given away to students who would pay the fee decided by a government-appointed committee.
The Pushpagiri Medical College went to court against the decision — and won the case.
Christian-run professional colleges have also been feuding with the present Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led LDF government over the fee structure and management of their institutions.
The Church leaders are believed to have told Patil that no Congress leader came to their aid in the tiff against the LDF government despite the community’s long-standing support to the party.
They also alleged that the Congress did not have many Christian leaders in its higher echelons, especially from the Latin community.
While the CPI-M has many Latin Catholic leaders (Finance Minister Thomas Isaac and Education Minister M.A. Baby being most prominent), the Congress state unit has only K.V. Thomas, who was tourism minister in the Antony government.
The Congress is desperate to get Christians’ support, which has been declining in recent years.
If they vote en bloc, Christians can act as spoilers in at least 70 percent of the 140 assembly constituencies.
Although constituting only 20 percent of the population, Christians in Kerala run most of the leading educational and health institutions and also wield considerable political clout.
The Congress national leadership is taking seriously the complaints voiced by Christian leaders, party sources told IANS.
Naturally, the Congress is happy over the war of words raging between CPI-M leader Pinarayi Vijayan and Church leaders over a deceased communist legislator, Mathai Chacko.
Vijayan called the late legislator a hardened Marxist, and thus an atheist, but bishops insisted that he had followed Christian rituals.
Vijayan, once seen as close to many Church leaders, has displeased many bishops with his invective against the community leaders over the row.