“This is the process; let it take its course. What I have to say is that there should be no politicisation. We do not see politics in it. If people want us to get involved, the party will do it. It is not dependent solely on religion, party, or politics. The incident was a misunderstanding.”
According to the 2011 Census, Christians account for 18.38 percent of the population in Kerala, Hindus 54.73 percent, and Muslims 26.56 percent. The BJP has been struggling to make an electoral impact in Kerala through Hindu votes only. So, the Christian community has been a long-term target for the party to make inroads into the southern state.
As part of its outreach, the party leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has made several visits to Kerala to meet the Christian leadership.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the victory of Suresh Gopi, an actor-politician contesting on a BJP ticket from Thrissur, a constituency with a significant Christian population, proved that the efforts have been in the right direction.
According to the CSDS-Lokniti post-poll survey, a significant five percent of Christians in Kerala voted for the BJP in the LS polls in 2024, when the party opened its account in the state, and its vote share increased to 16.68 percent last year from 13 percent in 2019. The party also received 32 percent of the Hindu Ezhava and 45 percent of the Nair votes.
Now, the panchayat election is coming up in Kerala at the year-end, and the state elections are scheduled for 2026.
However, the arrests of Sisters Preethi Mary, Vandana Francis and another person at the Durg railway station, Chhattisgarh, on 25 July after a Bajrang Dal activist reached the police, accusing the trio of attempting to convert three girls from Bastar’s Narayanpur, will likely impact the BJP’s Christian voter base.
While the BJP is trying to balance its outreach to Christians since the arrests, the effort seems to be facing internal criticism. Soon after the Monday arrests, Chandrasekhar stated the party was confident the nuns had not gone to Chhattisgarh to convert girls. However, the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo’s statement, as well as other local BJP voices defending the arrests of the nuns, have put the party on the back foot in Kerala.
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A balancing act
Conflicting voices are coming out from within the state BJP unit.
Chandrasekhar said the nuns were not involved in forceful conversion, but the former BJP chief in Kerala, K. Surendran, alluded to forcible conversions before Modi’s rise, only a day after the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council said the fate of the nuns would be a benchmark to decide the future relationship of the Church with the BJP.
“In the context of Chhattisgarh, it is worth noting that statistics say such incidents have decreased after the Modi government came to power. It is the truth that everyone deliberately ignores in Kerala, where isolated incidents get magnified,” Surendran said, sharing a photo of Kodikkunnil Suresh from the Congress-led United Democratic Front, and P.K. Biju, a Communist Party of India(Marxist) leader in the ruling Left Democratic Front, to highlight his party’s charge that the LDF and the UDF were cooperating to downplay a controversy surrounding remarks made by Speaker A.N. Shamseer against Hindu deities.
Surendran also claimed that the real Scheduled Castes do not get opportunities to win polls in Kerala—even from reserved constituencies.
Speaking to ThePrint, R.V. Babu, the president of a Sangh Parivar-affiliated Hindu Aikya Vedi, said the BJP’s political interests and its closeness to the Christians should not come at the cost of Hindus, indicating that Hindu outfits will not tone down their rhetoric in Kerala.
“Just because Christians and the BJP are getting close, we cannot accept it if it affects Hindus. We understand the BJP’s situation. But, we will not support anything that affects the larger Hindu cause,” R.V. Babu said.
Babu said the forum cannot understand why political parties, including the BJP, are in a hurry to prove that the arrested nuns are innocent when the First Information Report (FIR) registered in Chhattisgarh listed serious charges. He also alleged that Christian organisations had a history of pushing religious conversions.
“The case is under investigation. It should be the police and the court passing judgment. The state government and even the CM are alleging grave charges. So, how can anyone, BJP or anyone else from Kerala, claim they (nuns) are innocent?” R.V. Babu asked.
State-based political analyst Joseph C. Mathew said the nuns’ arrest incident would impact the BJP’s ambition to grow in Kerala as the Christian community would carry a fear of persecution now, even as the leadership are trying to assure the community.
“It would not work (Christians will not be assured), because the Chhattisgarh BJP stand is different. This incident will affect the BJP significantly. It happened at a very wrong time. It will be difficult for the party to convince voters with only months to go before the polls,” he said.
Mathew added that while the leadership tries to appease the Christian community, it will also face criticism from within, as Hindutva is at the core of the party.
“I believe the BJP always had this duality. Its essence is core Hindutva. Even Rajeev Chandrasekhar is a transitional leader. He is a businessman, seeking to establish a presence in the state ahead of the polls. But there are many hardcore Hindutva leaders within, forming the nucleus of the party. The BJP cannot let go of them either,” he said.
Appointed in March this year, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, however, has been leading the party’s campaign solely on the promise of development in the state.
The leader also appointed three Christians to the party’s state committee in July.
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Wrong or not?
Amid mounting pressure and conflicting statements from within the party, the BJP faces a dilemma over taking a stand on this particular case of religious conversion as its leaders and workers voice differing views.
Speaking to the media Thursday, Union Minister George Kurian said mainstream Christian denominations were not involved in religious conversions, and only “new age churches” were responsible.
“The FIR was filed before the completion of procedures. The BJP did not arrest the nuns. It was the TTE [Travelling Ticket Examiner] who found the children’s behaviour suspicious,” Kurian said Thursday.
Kurian, considered one of the prominent Christian faces in the Kerala BJP, earlier came under fire for staying silent by the side of Union Minister Suresh Gopi, who told the media that he could not confirm whether the conversion happened as the matter was sub judice.
Talking to ThePrint, BJP leader and advocate Shone George said the party would not support the nuns had they tried in reality to convert anyone.
“If the nuns had done what the FIR claims, we would never have supported them. But we strongly believe the arrests were a misunderstanding. The BJP is a big organisation, and some may not have fully understood what happened,” he said.
George Kurian alleged that the Congress and the CPI(M) have politicised the issue for their benefit, especially since the BJP recently gained a “Christian face” as an MP, with support for the BJP growing in the Christian community. Still, Kurian emphasised that the community knows what the BJP has already done for them.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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