SAFFRON SEEKS NEW PASTURES

The BJP’s impressive showing in the recent assembly elections in the Northeast—and the show of support by the Christian majority there—has raised the hopes of the party’s Kerala unit.

- Jeemon Jacob and Anilesh S. Mahajan

The state is an outlier, resisting the wiles of the saffron party, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi admitted on his visit on March 2 that breaching the gates was top priority. “It happened in the Northeast and Goa, and it will happen in Kerala too. The BJP will come to power here and become a real alternative for the people of Kerala. For years, the minorities have been threatened [by other political parties] invoking our name. But after Goa and now the Northeast states, the Christian brothers are with the BJP. The people of Kerala have realised the duplicity of the Congress and CPI(M)…they are doing kushti (wrestling) in Kerala and friendship in Bengal and Tripura,” PM Modi said, blasting the state’s two main parties.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of the CPI(M) was quick with his retort, saying the PM shouldn’t waste so much time “daydreaming”. “The minority communities here know they are being persecuted by the Sangh Parivar everywhere in India, they will not fall for the BJP,” he said, explaining why Kerala’s Muslims and Christians will keep their distance from the saffron party.