Archbishop of Thalassery Mar Joseph Pamplany, recently in the news for offering support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the election in lieu of an increased price of rubber, has once again raked up controversy with comments on political martyrs.
At the inauguration of the Youth Day celebration held at Cherupuzha here under the leadership of the Kerala Catholic Youth Movement on Saturday, the archbishop said that political martyrs were shot dead because they fought unnecessarily. “Some might have died after falling off a bridge when the police chased them during a demonstration,” he said.
He made the statement while referring to the martyrdom of the 12 apostles of Christ. “We must remember that the apostles were martyred because they stood for goodness, truth, virtue, and values of life,” he said.
Reacting to his statement, Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State committee member P. Jayarajan told the media that considering the previous statements made by archbishop Pamplany, this statement should not be taken too seriously.
CPI(M) district secretary M.V. Jayarajan said that the 700-odd communists killed by police and political opponents in Kerala had worked for others and not for selves. The archbishop and those belonging to the minority communities could freely express their opinion because Kerala provided them the scope to do so. The archbishop should clarify whether his comments were applicable to Mahatma Gandhi too.
‘Undemocratic’
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president K. Surendran termed undemocratic the Left parties’ response to the archbishop’s comments. “Political conflicts happen only in communist power centres. They are the ones who commit political killings and celebrate martyrs,” he added.
Mr. Surendran said the communists who made the politics of annihilation their ideology were not ready to lay down their arms.
