The Kerala unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sharply criticized the Kerala Congress for a controversial social media post regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent meeting with Pope Francis in Italy during the G7 summit. The post shared on the Congress Kerala X handle, featured a photo of the Prime Minister with the Pope, accompanied by a sarcastic comment: “Finally, the Pope got a chance to meet God.”
BJP state president K. Surendran condemned the post, calling it derogatory and unacceptable. He accused the Congress of having a longstanding practice of insulting national leaders and, in this instance, also offending the Pope and the Christian community. Surendran alleged that the comment was made with the knowledge of Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal and questioned whether senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi supported such actions. He further claimed that the Congress’s social media strategy aims to belittle respected personalities, denigrating both the Pope and the Christian community. He added that extreme Islamists or Urban Naxalites might be handling the Congress’s social media.
Union Minister George Kurien stated that the post hurt religious sentiments, while Amit Malviya, head of the BJP IT Cell, demanded an apology from Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. BJP National Secretary Anil Antony echoed these sentiments on X, asserting that the post reflected Congress’s hate politics against Prime Minister Modi and called on Sonia Gandhi, a practicing Catholic, to condemn it.
In response to the backlash, the Congress’s cyber team withdrew the offending post and issued a new message. The revised post emphasized that the Indian National Congress does not endorse insulting any religion, religious figures, or icons and offered an unconditional apology to the Christian community if the post had hurt their sentiments.
This incident has highlighted the contentious nature of political discourse in India, with the BJP accusing the Congress of being willing to go to any lengths to insult the Prime Minister, even if it means offending religious sentiments.
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