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CPI-M shouldn't use Kerala saints' photos to get votes: Church
Alappuzha (Kerala), Feb 17
The CPI-M should
not use the pictures of Saint Alphonsa and Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara
to get votes in Kerala, a Catholic church official said Tuesday.
The
Communist Party of India-Marxist's (CPI-M) state party conference will
be held later this week and the roads leading to Alappuzha have been
decorated, using red colours. The picture of Saint Alphonsa, who became
the first Indian to be canonized in 2008, has been put near a church in
Aroor here.
The picture of Father Kuriakose, who was elevated as a saint by the Pope last year, was also there.
"If
this (putting pictures) is a move to get a few votes by the CPI-M, then
it would be a hypocritical move," Paul Thelekkat, spokesperson of the
Syro Malabar Catholic Church, told IANS.
The should also accept the teachings of these two saints and not just use their pictures to get votes, Thelekkat said.
He
however noted that "one good thing is that the CPI-M has come a long
way on their policies from when they first started" and opined that the
Bharatiya Janata Party also should evolve the same way.
Senior
CPI-M legislator Raju Abraham however denied the charges of hypocrisy,
and noted the party state conference is a vehicle where ideological
issues are discussed and they have always kept pictures of social
reformers and such leaders cutting across religions.
"There is
no hypocrisy in this because we are not facing an election... instead
it's our conference where things are being discussed. We have done this
in the past too and nothing more needs to be seen into this," Abraham
told IANS.