BJP leaders have no doubt about it. This time, Kerala will create history by letting the party win a few seats from the State. That is the common refrain of the party leaders. The overwhelming support for the temple will translate into votes, they point out. The year 2024 will witness the end of the bipolar political paradigm in the State. They argue. There is a heightened level of religiosity in the state, no doubt. But the politically enlightened voters of Kerala won’t be swayed by the open expression of religiosity when they go to the polling booths in the parliamentary polls. That is the reality. And the BJP leaders would do well to keep this in mind. After all, Kerala is not Uttar Pradesh or Gujarat.

The Sangh Parivar camp would have the people believe that the party would succeed, this time around, in selling Hindutva as a political agenda in the State. Keen observers of the political scene here tend to disagree. They concede that there has been a slight increase in religiosity in the wake of the temple consecration. But the people of Kerala are too intelligent to be taken in by the unabashed display of religiosity and attempt at religious polarization.

Even a few Sangh Parivar leaders agree that the temple is unlikely to trigger a big shift in voter preference in the State known for its secular ethos and pluralism. It will take something more than the Ram temple to influence the voters’ thinking in the State. The BJP leaders are themselves acutely aware of this. Hence their unceasing efforts to curry favour with the minorities, especially the Christian community.

But a close look would reveal that the party’s efforts to woo Christians in a big way have failed to produce tangible results. There is no denying that top BJP leaders, the Prime Minister downwards, have been trying their level best to woo the Christian community. The Prime Minister himself took the initiative to have a meeting with Christian bishops as part of the party’s political strategy. What is the result? Nothing has happened to boost the BJP’s confidence at the ground level. And it is also a fact that the failure of Christian leaders to mention the atrocities against Christians in Manipur and elsewhere has touched off a wave anger across the community. It is also an undeniable fact that there has been no let-up in attacks against Christians and their religious institutions even after the PM’s meeting with the community leaders. The latest is the incidents in Madhya wherein the saffronites covered the crosses in churches with the party flags. Not a single BJP leader has come out in condemnation of such shocking attacks against the Christian churches.

This being the ground reality, BJP leaders would be living in a fool’s paradise if they think that Christian voters would, now, make a beeline to the polling booths to vote for the party. The sullen mood of the Christian voters was evident from an editorial in Deepika daily, the mouthpiece of the influential Syro Malabar Sabha. The editorial says the community voters cannot forget the atrocities against them in Manipur and elsewhere. And that the voters would express their anger through the ballot box. The palpable anger in the community can not but send shivers down the spines of BJP leaders like Suresh Gopi, the superstar of Malayalam cinema who will be contesting from Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency. The actor was brimming with confidence after the Prime Minister visited the constituency and attended the marriage of his daughter. But the Syro Malabar Sabha’s stance cannot but cause concern in the saffron camp as constituencies like Thrissur have a sizable slice of Christian voters. The BJP leaders must realize that the picture is anything but pretty.

Kerala reacted to the consecration of the idol of Ram on expected lines. Both the Left Democratic front and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) have strongly criticized the mixing of religion with politics. Within hours after the PM inaugurated the consecration, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan savaged the Union Government for making the ceremony a state event. In a strongly-worded statement, Pinarayi reminded Modi, without naming him, that his participation in religious events would severely dent the country’s credentials as a secular state. Secularism is the soul of India, Pinarayi said, quoting Jawaharlal Nehru who said that Indian secularism means the separation of religion and state. Likewise, the leader of the opposition V D Satheesan also castigated the Sangh Parivar’s attempts to mix religion with politics for electoral gains. Interestingly, his colleague Shashi Tharoor, however, posted an image of the Ram Lalla on X with a caption, “Victory to Lord Ram, the husband of Sita.” This shows the confusion in the Congress camp over the temple consecration. (IPA Service)