Kochi: The tirade unleashed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan against the Jacobite Syrian Church’s Niranam Diocese’s former Metropolitan Geevarghese Mar Coorilose over a Facebook post where the priest criticised the LDF government has called for widespread discontentment among the community and the church.
The Congress party and various community groups including leaders of the CITU criticised the Chief Minister for insulting the senior priest.
“The CM should have avoided such comments as it will hurt the sentiments of the believers”, said SNDP secretary Vellapally Nateshan. Similar comments were made by various political leaders through social media.
It all began in a Facebook post when Mar Coorilose said the huge defeat that the LDF had to face in the Lok Sabha polls was due to the erosion in people’s trust and the poor performance of the second Pinarayi government compared to the first tenure.
“Arrogance and opulence, if continued, would spell doom for the Left government. Floods and epidemics will not come to your rescue every time, and the people will not fall for the ‘kit politics’ time and again, especially in Kerala,” the bishop posted on Facebook a day after the election results was announced.
A day after the post, Pinarayi Vijayan responded to the senior priest by making a veiled reference at public speech stating that, ‘there are fools among the priests too’.
Ironically, Mar Coorilose who faced the Chief Ministers ire is known for his pro-left stance where he is one among the few senior priests who has been supporting the views of the left government.
“Today I read in the media about a priest’s words. He said the floods helped this government to get a second term and that the government should not think that another flood will happen. His statement showed that there are fools among priests as well. None of us would wish for a flood again. But we stood as one to overcome that calamity,” the Chief Minister said at a public programme.
Following the remarks made by Pinarayi Vijayan, the Kerala Council of Churches (KCC), a joint confederation of Christian organizations, has come out against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s statement.
“If the Emperor is naked, it is society’s responsibility to call him out, said the KCC statement. KCC also called out the CM for insulting critics, which showed his immature stature.
“There has been no change in the behaviour of this person, who once called a priest a wretch, and today he calls another priest ’empty-headed’. It can be understood that the nature of the caller has not changed,” said KCC in its statement.
Even as the controversy raged on, state tourism minister Mohammed Riyaz defended the Chief Minister and the party stating the CPI(M) has always been tolerant to criticism.
The Congress party and various community groups including leaders of the CITU criticised the Chief Minister for insulting the senior priest. “The CM should have avoided such comments as it will hurt the sentiments of the believers”, said SNDP secretary Vellapally Nateshan. Similar comments were made by various political leaders through social media. Kerala States News India: Top News India, States News, States News Headlines, Online State News India, State Politics news
