Kerala Catholic Bishops Council helps Jose Ok Mani, voices concern about Love Jihad in Kerala

CPM and LDF are caught in a conundrum after LDF ally Kerala Congress (M) chief Jose Ok Mani issued a press release on ‘Love Jihad’. In a TV interview, Mani said, “Love jihad has again come up as an issue. Society has apprehensions about it. As the issue has emerged again, the apprehensions about it should be cleared.”
This assertion has sparked controversy within the ruling left alliance simply forward of the Assembly election, reported the Indian Express.
To add to it, Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) has expressed its assist to Jose Ok Mani, an ally for his assertion on Love Jihad.
KCBC spokesperson, Fr Jacob, commenting on the difficulty demanded, “CPM and other major political parties should reveal their stance on the matter.” He added, “Love Jihad is a fact. I am happy about the practical response from Kerala Congress (M) chairman Jose K Mani”, as per a Mathrubhumi report.
Disgruntled with the Chief Minister’s denial of the existence of Love Jihad, he added, “The Chief Minister claims that Love Jihad does not exist. He is making such a statement over his political agenda. The church and the public are worried about Love Jihad. The government and political parties are bound to solve the issue.”
Clarifying his stance on willful inter-religion marriage, he mentioned, “The church is not against marriage between people who belong to different religions. But the church opposes making someone forcefully follow a religion.”
Fr Jacob alleged that solely Muslim League denies the existence of Love Jihad.
Jose Mani is contesting elections from Pala, a constituency that has a large chunk of Catholic votes. Jose is up towards sitting legislator and NCP (Kerala) chief Mani C Kappan who enjoys mass following. However, the Catholic Church in Kerala has been persistently voicing towards “love jihad”. They even have sought BJP’s assist for a similar.
While the opposite events are silent on the difficulty, BJP in its manifesto launched final week has promised to deliver laws to counter ‘Love Jihad’.
Meanwhile, Congress chief Shashi Tharoor attacked BJP on this concern and mentioned that the BJP can solely provide communalism, scare-mongering over ‘Love Jihad’ and hate-filled politics of division which is not going to reach a pluralist state like Kerala.
Kerala goes into voting on April 06 and the counting of votes will happen on May 02 together with Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, West Benagl and Assam.