Thiruvananthapuram: A senior Orthodox Church Bishop in Kerala slammed “they” that when, “there they honour the bishops and revere the crib”, “Here, they destroy cribs,” paraphrasing a Malayalam saying.
In a Facebook post, Metropolitan of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Yuhanon Meletius was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending Christmas celebrations hosted by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) in Delhi and VHP leaders disrupting the same in Kerala’s Palakkad, The Indian Express (TIE) reported.
As per Christian tradition, a crib is part of a nativity scene that represents the birth of Jesus, TIE reported.
There were two incidents of Christmas celebrations being disrupted in government schools in Palakkad, and three VHP leaders were arrested while searching for miscreants in the other.
Three Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders appeared at the Government Upper Primary School at Nallepilly in Palakkad, where Christmas celebrations took place on Friday. Those who arrived, led by VHP Palakkad district secretary K Anil Kumar, questioned the teachers why Krishna Janmashtami is not celebrated instead of Christmas and asked why teachers are wearing attires attributed to Santa Claus.
Police booked the three under BNS sections 329 (3), 296 (b), 351 (2) and 132.
The second incident happened at the same police limits, where a crib erected at the government basic school at Thathamangalam was vandalized. A case was registered, and police are investigating the same.
However, BJP state president K Surendran claimed that there was a conspiracy behind the two incidents, and they were intended to shatter BJP’s relations with the Christian community in the state.