BJP raises spectre of ‘political Islam' infiltrating Church in Kerala
He noted the presence of Islamist elements in demonstrations led by Church leaders and the laity in several locations, including Kannur, Thalassery, Kozhikode, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Mananthavady, Angamaly and Ernakulam.
'I talked to the senior-most prelate in Kerala on Monday. He seemed not to be concerned about the presence of radical Islamists among the demonstrators,' he added.
Asked to adduce evidence to back his charges, Mr. George asked mediapersons to contact the State police intelligence or mine their sources in the localities.
Mr. George alleged that the SDPI's gambit was to use the arrest of the nuns as a foil for alienating Christians from the BJP. The SDPI and Jamaat-e-Islami's tactics had the tacit backing of the Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)].
He accused the ruling front and the Opposition of seeking to frustrate the efforts of the BJP governments at the Centre and Chhattisgarh to secure an early release for the nuns.
'Both the Congress and the CPI(M) wanted the nuns to remain in jail to ensure that the emotive issue festers and retards the BJP's bourgeoning acceptance among Christians in Kerala,' he added.
Mr. George said the Vatican Council in 1964 had ruled against forced conversion. 'In contrast, if Tipu Sultan's expeditionary forays had not halted at Kodungalloor 200 years ago, Kerala's social matrix would have been different,' he added.
Mr. George attacked the Congress and CPI(M) for seeking the support of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) respectively during the recent byelection in the Nilambur Assembly constituency. He said the BJP was with 'patriotic Muslims,' who, he stated, were in the majority.
BJP leader S. Suresh, who is also a State vice-president, said the party would not allow political adversaries to single out State president Rajiv Chandrasekhar for criticism.
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As mourners gather in the small village of Nemra in Ramgarh district, beneath Jharkhand's expansive sky, the echoes of a people's struggle rise once again from the margins. Shibu Soren, Dishom Guru, the revered architect of Jharkhand's Adivasi assertion and one of India's most enduring mass leaders, is carried on his final journey through the land that shaped him, and that he, in turn, helped transform. For millions, including those like myself who grew up in the heart of a predominantly Adivasi mohalla in Ranchi, Guruji's legacy extends far beyond politics, it's personal, intergenerational, and profoundly unfinished. I was barely eight years old, a student in the second standard, on November 15, 2000, the day Jharkhand was born. That afternoon, the JMM office in our mohalla overflowed with celebration. Green gulal clouded the sky, drums echoed through the lanes, and our elders, including my father, a longtime JMM worker, sang slogans they had carried for decades: 'Abua Dishom, Abua Raj,' and 'Kaise liya Jharkhand, lad ke liya Jharkhand.' For people, green was more than a colour, it was a memory, a promise, and the living emblem of a movement that had finally carved out a state. At the centre of those celebrations was the image of Shibu Soren, on banners, in conversations, and etched into memory. Though it was already known he would not become the first Chief Minister, many still clung to a quiet, if improbable, hope. For over three decades, Soren had been its most consistent and compelling voice — the face through which the movement spoke, rallied, and endured. But by evening, the inevitable was confirmed: Babulal Marandi of the BJP had been sworn in. There was no protest, just a heavy silence, as if the cost of realism had caught up with the dream. 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