Thiruvananthapuram, India, 11 March 2014: The Communist party in Kerala has thrown
its support behind five Christian candidates in the southern Indian state, a traditionally
Christian stronghold, in the country’s forthcoming national elections.
The
move highlights a bridging of the divide between communists and Christians in the
state, as well as a growing disaffection between Christians and the ruling Congress
party, particularly over the issue of the government’s plans to protect the Western
Ghats, a hilly region that runs through Kerala.
Christians, who comprise less
than 20 percent of the state’s 30 million population, have been politically decisive
in some pockets of the state’s electorate and are traditionally strong backers of
the Congress party.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF), an alliance of communist
parties in the state and a perennial foe of the Congress party, says it has agreed
to support the five Christian candidates.
“This is the first time that the
communists have supported so many Christians,” said A Jayashanker, a political analyst
based in the Kerala state capital Thiruvananthapuram.
It is not the first time
that communists and Christians have found themselves on the same side of electoral
issues, but this time “it is an attempt to take advantage of the current political
situation,” as the Catholic Church is disappointed with the ruling Congress party
on the issue of the Western Ghats, Jayashankar added.
Christian groups, led
by a number of Catholic bishops, have been campaigning against government plans to
implement recommendations of the High-Level Green Committee aimed at increasing environmental
protection in the Western Ghats.
Christian leaders say the recommendations
would, if implemented in their entirety, displace millions of farmers – the majority
of them Catholics.
But MA Baby, a politburo member of the Communist Party of
India (Marxist) and a candidate for election from Kollam, denies that the communists
are simply playing politics in their support of Catholic candidates.
“We field
candidates based on their merits and capacity to garner the maximum number of votes,”
Baby said. A senior communist leader told ucanews.com that they had discussions with
Catholic Church representatives. "We have indicated that we would field a candidate
of their choice,” he said.
Thekkethala Innocent, a popular Malayalam film star
and member of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is one such candidate, running for
the Chalakudy constituency.
Innocent told ucanews.com that he was offered the
ticket by the LDF as a token of his popularity among the common people.
“My
father was a Catholic and a communist,” said the 69-year-old. “He told me that only
communists fight for social equality.”
He said religion has nothing to do with
politics. “We people in Chalakudy don’t think about people on the lines of their religion
or color. We judge them by their qualities as human beings.”Source: UCAN