The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala on March 28 launched a hectic exercise in damage control after news broke that the Manipur government had declared Easter Sunday a working day.
The party’s State leadership took pains to convince Christians, a crucial electoral bloc in Kerala, that the BJP-led Manipur government had declared the State holidays on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
The BJP appeared worried that the episode might upend the party’s carefully calibrated outreach to the Church in Kerala, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed to cap with a high-profile Christmas celebration for the top clergy at his official residence in New Delhi in 2023.