Until some time ago, it wouldn’t have raised any opposition in Kerala. It would have even been hailed as another right step forward. But today, religious groups not only publicly assume conservative positions but even the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the loudest claimant for Kerala’s progressive legacy, also gets caught on the wrong side. This is only the latest among Kerala’s many recent signs of stepping backwards.
Joisna Mary Joseph, a nurse in Saudi Arabia, had come on leave to her home in hilly Kodenchery in Kozhikode district in March. On April 9, she was found missing, according to her parents. Calls to her phone went unanswered. The parents registered a complaint with the local police. A few days later, Joisna appeared before the local court with M.S. Shejin and said they were in love and were about to marry. Joisna posted this later on her Facebook page too.
The affair became a major controversy in Kerala, with top leaders of political parties, religious organizations, and the media joining the fray. The reason? The religions to which Joisna and Shejin belonged. Joisna is a Christian — a Roman Catholic — and Shejin a Muslim. To add to the spice, Shejin happened to be an area-secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation of India, the CPI(M)’s youth wing. It triggered a row in the region, with local church leaders expressing apprehensions. They argued that Joisna was being held forcibly by Shejin with support from the ruling CPI(M) and Muslim groups. They suspected it was another case of ‘love jihad’, which Kerala’s Catholic church has been complaining about for long. Still, the affair didn’t evoke attention beyond the village, which had an equal presence of both Christians and Muslims.
But all hell broke loose when George M. Thomas, a prominent CPI(M) leader from the region, expressed displeasure over the affair. “Their elopement has hurt the relations between religions,” Thomas, a two-time CPI(M) legislator, told a news channel. Thomas even said that ‘love jihad’ was not non-existent in Kerala, although not to the extent claimed by organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He also added that in its internal documents circulated last September the CPI(M) had stated that girls in professional colleges were being lured by fundamentalist groups.
This kicked up huge headlines and the CPI(M) was blasted on social media for parroting the RSS and the Catholic church. Thomas was accused of being the CPI(M)’s bridge with the powerful Syro-Malabar Church and it was alleged that he had won elections with its support from the region, which was once a stronghold of the Congress and the Muslim community. Muslim organizations, too, went for the CPI(M)’s jugular. The next day, the CPI(M)’s Kozhikode district-secretary, P. Mohanan, launched a damage-control exercise. He said that Thomas’s comments on ‘love jihad’ were baseless and that the CPI(M) does not subscribe to them. “It was Thomas’s slip of the tongue. We firmly believe love jihad is completely the RSS’s propaganda.” At the same time, Mohanan said that Shejin, a CPI(M) member, should have informed the party before they lived together.
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https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/poisoned-love/cid/1862088
