Kerala priest: PM’s symbolic gesture inconsistent with VHP actions

A senior priest of the Orthodox Church in Kerala on Tuesday took a swipe at the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over their Christmas celebrations, citing the recent disruption of festivity in a Kerala school by VHP activists.

The sharp criticism from the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church’s Thrissur diocese metropolitan, Yuhanon Mor Meletius, on his social media handle came a day after PM Modi attended the Christmas celebrations hosted by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India in New Delhi.

“Over there, bishops are honoured, and cribs are revered. Here, cribs are destroyed. There must be a term in Malayalam for such behaviour, right?” the priest said in a Facebook post.

The alleged disruption of Christmas celebrations in a school by local VHP activists and the destruction of a symbolic crib in another school by miscreants in Palakkad had triggered protests in Kerala.