Syro-Malabar Church critises Congress, UDF for allying with Welfare Party in local polls

Kochi (Kerala) [India], January 4 : The official mouthpiece of Syro-Malabar Church, Sathyadeepam, in its editorial, has criticised the Congress and United Democratic Front (UDF) for allying with the Welfare Party in the local body polls.
"When the church leadership itself announced its stance on issues such as Love Jihad and the 80:20 imbalance in the distribution of minority welfare rights, the feeling that the secular face of the Congress was being lost through the UDF-Welfare Party relationship created a rift in the traditional Christian vote in Central and North Kerala against the UDF. Left Democratic Front (LDF) benefited from the results of the Left campaign that the Congress had completely surrendered to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML)," the Syro-Malabar Church said via its mouthpiece's editorial.
It also alleged Prime Minister's involvement in the discussion on the issue of dispute between Orthodox-Jacobite churches.
"The direct involvement of the Prime Minister in the Orthodox-Jacobite dispute and the Catholic Church leadership's welcome his involvement in the dispute over the distribution of minority welfare is a matter of pressure for both fronts. But the secularism of the BJP in Kerala proved to be mere hypocrisy when BJP announced their communal agenda once again by hoisting the banner of Jai Sriram at the Palakkad Municipality headquarters," it said.
In Kerala, where minority votes are crucial, the exclusion of a section of the population as one through politics and not properly addressing the interests of the majority community would be contrary to the concept of secular social integration, it added.