Verghese V Joseph –
Kochi: In a significant development, the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) on Thursday came down heavily on the Central and state governments over the rising violence in Manipur.
Speaking to media, KCBC spokesperson Fr Jacob Palackappilly was of the opinion that, “If it was a conflict between two tribal groups, then there will not be a situation where only one group is attacked. People with vested interests and pre-planned agenda are acting behind the violence. If the state is unable to maintain law and order, then the Centre has the responsibility to dissolve the state government and impose President’s rule.”
Earlier on Thursday in Kannur, Mar Joseph Pamplany, metropolitan archbishop of Tellicherry Archdiocese, Syro-Malabar Church, on Thursday took a jibe at the central government over violence with the 2002 Gujarat riots. Expressing concern over whether the riots would turn into a genocide, Pamplany opined that both the state and central governments have failed to suppress the violence.
Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany of the Archdiocese of Thalassery termed the ongoing violence an “ethnic cleansing” of Christians, who make up 41 per cent of the population of the northeastern state, and asked Modi if he would be able to repeat his claim in the US that there was no religious discrimination in India.
“When such an ethnic cleansing is happening in our country, our Prime Minister told the American Congress that there is absolutely no discrimination in India,” Pamplany told a solidarity meeting in Kannur, north Kerala, on Wednesday. Modi had, in fact, said this in response to a reporter’s query at a joint press conference with US President Joe Biden in Washington.
“Honourable Prime Minister, what we have to ask you is that other than telling the American Congress (press conference), can you keep your hand on your chest and tell the suffering Christians of Manipur that there is no religious discrimination in this country?”
Interestingly, it was recently that Mar Joseph Pamplany, earlier accused of co-opting the national party on the pretext of ensuring better prices for rubber, who has taken the plunge by openly disapproving the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Manipur.
The KCBC, the apex body of Catholic Churches in Kerala, appears to have taken a cue with sharp criticism of the ruling party and its parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
“Over 300 institutions under the Church have been vandalised and Christians belonging to both the Meitei and Kuki tribes are being selectively targeted. The ongoing violence in Manipur forms part of a larger plot by the Sangh Parivar to eliminate the Christians in India,” says Jacob G. Palackapilly.
To help riot-hit Manipur people tide over their difficulties, the Church has organised various programmes across the State while looking for ways to extend all possible support to the victims of violence. “All Catholic dioceses in Kerala will be donating the money to be collected from the parishes in the form of Sunday donations to Manipur through Caritas India,” adds the KCBC spokesperson.