The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may have waited for decades to strike a right chord with the influential Catholic Church in Kerala. The initial excitement over this putative relationship, which touched a crescendo recently with Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairing a meeting with top bishops, however, appears to be on an inexorable decline.
This sudden slide in relationship has been triggered by the reports of raging attacks against Christians in Manipur and other States, which have caught the Catholic Church here in a bind. The violence appears to have fanned the flames of a seething anger over the purported favourable stance adopted by a section of its clergy towards the national party.
