Kerala BJP Slams Congress After Its 'God' Dig At PM Modi Over Meeting with Pope

The Kerala units of Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) locked horns on Sunday over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Pope Francis during the G7 Summit. The war of words started after the grand-old party posted a picture of PM Modi with the Pope on its X handle along with a sarcastic comment that “Finally, the Pope got a chance to meet God!”

Irked by the post, BJP alleged that X handle of Congress was seemingly run by “radical Islamists or Urban Naxals”.

Taking to X, BJP state chief K Surendran accused the Congress’ Kerala unit of posting derogatory and humiliating content against nationalistic leaders on its social media handle and sought to know whether party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi endorsed it.

“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?” Surendran said in his post.

Soon after his criticism, the Congress again gave a sarcastic reply through its X handle and wished “better luck next time” to Surendran and others from “Modi ka parivar”.

“When you manage to make intelligent smiles gush from the lips of even one spectator, you make even God smile.” Pope Francis Pope Francis said this on Friday, 14th June on the same day after he met Narendra Modi. Better luck next time, @surendranbjp, @Georgekurianbjp and others from Modi ka parivar!” the Congress in Kerala said it’s post.

The grand old party later also put out a lengthy post saying that the entire country knows that it is not the tradition of the Indian National Congress to insult and disparage any religion, religious priests and idols.

“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,” the party said.

“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. We apologize unreservedly if this post has caused any emotional or psychological distress to Christians,” Kerala Congress added.

PM Modi Interview

While campaigning for the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, PM Modi, during an interview with CNN News18, said, “When my mother was alive, I used to believe that I was born biologically. After she passed away, upon reflecting on all my experiences, I was convinced that God has sent me. This energy could not be from my biological body, but was bestowed upon me by God…whenever I do anything, I believe god is guiding me.”

PM Modi’s Meeting With Pope

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday invited Pope Francis to visit India and said he admired the pontiff’s commitment to serving the people.

They met with a warm embrace at the Outreach session of the G7 Summit in Italy where they joined other world leaders to deliberate on the topic of Artificial Intelligence, Energy, Africa and the Mediterranean.