Amidst a backlash over an X post equating Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ‘God’ and mocking the Pope, the Kerala unit of Congress has ‘apologised’ on the 16th of June. Their statement, however, seemed more of self-praise and attack on PM Modi than an apology.
Taking to X, the official handle of Kerala Congress said, “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.”
The Congress party added that none of its workers would think of insulting the Pope, however, they have no qualms in mocking PM Modi as he called himself God.
“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 calling himself God,” it added.
ഒരു മതത്തെയും മതപുരോഹിതന്മാരെയും ആരാധനാമൂർത്തികളെയും അപമാനിക്കുകയും അവഹേളിക്കുകയും ചെയ്യുന്നത് ഇന്ത്യൻ നാഷണൽ കോൺഗ്രസിന്റെ പാരമ്പര്യമല്ലെന്ന് ഈ നാട്ടിലെ ജനങ്ങൾക്ക് മുഴുവനും അറിയാം. എല്ലാ മതങ്ങളെയും വിശ്വാസങ്ങളെയും ചേർത്ത് പിടിച്ച് സൗഹാർദ്ദപരമായ അന്തരീക്ഷത്തിൽ ജനങ്ങളെ മുന്നോട്ടു… pic.twitter.com/Jg7HBh9BMw
— Congress Kerala (@INCKerala) June 16, 2024
The Kerala Congress then attacked the BJP for criticising their contentious post. “In that way, people will understand the communal mind of Surendran and Modi’s entourage to portray the mocking of 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,” the party said.
Notably, Kerala BJP state president K Surendran had on Sunday alleged that the Kerala Congress’s X handle is being run by “radical Islamists” or “urban naxals” which has started mocking the Pope and the Christian community after posting humiliating content on nationalistic leaders.
“The @INCIndia 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, @kcvenugopalmp, is aware of this. The question is, what are @RahulGandhi and @kharge’s interests in supporting this?” the Congress party added.
Finally, the Kerala Congress apologised “unreservedly” for causing emotional distress to Christians. “We apologize unreservedly if this post has caused any emotional or psychological distress to Christians,” the party said.
This comes after the Kerala Congress shared an X post (now-deleted) on Sunday which included a picture of PM Modi in which he was holding a brief chat with the Pope who is the highest priest for Catholic Christians. Along with the photo of Narendra Modi with Pope Francis, Kerala Congress mockingly wrote, “Finally, the Pope got a chance to meet God!” However, perhaps they didn’t realise that with these words they equated Narendra Modi to Jesus Christ, because the Pope’s God is Jesus Christ only.
As reported earlier, the picture was taken during the recently concluded G7 Summit where Indian PM Narendra Modi was invited to attend. Pope Francis also attended the event as he was invited to talk about the pros and cons of artificial intelligence. All world leaders present at the summit met the Pope, and photos of the same have appeared in media.
