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Published 00:05 IST, June 17th 2024

'Insult to Christian Community': Kerala Cong’s Post on PM Modi’s Meet With Pope Sparks Row

Kerala Unit of Congress party posted a picture of PM Modi with the Pope on its X handle with a caption, saying, “Finally, the Pope got a chance to meet God!".

Reported by: Abhishek Tiwari
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Pope
Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Pope | Image: X

Thiruvananthapuram: It appears as if the Congress party, while attempting to mock Prime Minister Narendra Modi for meeting with Pope Francis during the G7 Summit in Italy, has landed itself in trouble by triggering a massive controversy. On Sunday, the Kerala Unit of the Grand-Old party posted a picture of PM Modi with the Pope on its X handle along with a sarcastic caption, saying, “Finally, the Pope got a chance to meet God!". The post irked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which went all guns blazing at the Congress calling the post derogatory and humiliating content against the prime minister.

The BJP in Kerala hit out at the Congress party in the state over its social media post on PM Narendra Modi's meeting with Pope Francis during the G7 Summit.

Congress Kerala ‘X’ handle, seemingly run by radical Islamists or Urban Naxals: Kerala BJP Chief K Surendran

Kerala BJP General Secretary, George Kurian lambasted the Congress over the post labelling it as an absolute insult to the Christian community. In his post on X, Kurian said, “This tweet by the Congress, equates Prime Minister Modi to Lord Jesus. This is absolutely uncalled for and is an insult to the Christian community, who revere Jesus. It is shameful that Congress has stopped to this level.”

Accusing the Congress Kerala Unit of posting derogatory and humiliating content, State BJP chief K Surendran asserted that it seems as if the Congress’s Kerala social media handle is run by radical Islamists or Urban Naxals.

He said, “The Congress Kerala ‘X’ handle, seemingly run by radical Islamists or Urban Naxals, continues to post derogatory and humiliating content against nationalistic leaders. Now, it has even stooped to mocking the respected Pope and the Christian community. It's certain that the AICC General Secretary from Kerala, KC Venugopal is aware of this. The question is, what are Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun kharge’s interests in supporting this?”

BJP leader Amit Malviya too took to X, to attack Congress over the post, saying, “After mocking the Hindus and deriding their faith, the Islamist-Marxist nexus in the Congress has now come down to insulting the Christians. This, when Sonia Gandhi, the longest serving Congress President, herself is a practising Catholic. She must apologise to the believers.”

Earlier, Pope Francis on Friday, after meeting PM Narendra Modi, said, "When you manage to make intelligent smiles gush from the lips of even one spectator, you make even God smile."

During the meeting, Prime Minister Modi also invited Pope Francis to visit India and said he admired the pontiff's commitment to serving the people. They met with a warm embrace at the Outreach session of the G7 Summit in Italy where they joined other world leaders to deliberate on the topic of Artificial Intelligence, Energy, Africa and the Mediterranean.

Kerala Congress Apologises

Meanwhile, as the controversy drew massive criticism to the Congress, the party extended apologies for hurting sentiments. In its apology post on X, the Kerala Congress wrote,

“The entire people of this country know that it is not the tradition of the Indian National Congress to insult and disparage any religion, religious priests and idols. Congress is a movement that unites all religions and faiths and leads the people forward in a friendly atmosphere.

No Congress worker would even entertain the remotest thought of insulting the Pope, whom Christians around the world see as God-like. However, the Congress has no qualms about mocking Narendra Modi, who insults the believers of this country by saying that he is God.

In that way, people will understand the communal mind of Surendran and Modi's entourage to portray Narendra Modi's shameless political games as an insult to the Pope. Surendran and his colleagues are trying to downgrade Christians as a group of people who have no self-respect and spread communal poison as soon as they inject it.

If there is genuine love for the Christian community then Modi and his cohorts who remained silent when their temples were burnt down in Manipur should first unconditionally apologize to the Christian community.

We apologize unreservedly if this post has caused any emotional or psychological distress to Christians.”

Updated 00:11 IST, June 17th 2024