The ethnic violence in Manipur and the Centre’s purported move to draft a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) seem to have affected the BJP’s carefully choreographed outreach to the minorities in Kerala.
Across the country, there is conflict and debate over the UCC and angst about the situation in Manipur. But nowhere is it as intense as in Kerala, given the State’s unique demographics. Muslims, who constitute 28.6% of the State’s population, and Christians, who constitute 18.4%, are both crucial voting blocs.
Christian households in Central and North Kerala have seen their incomes plummet due to low prices of cash crops. The failure of successive Congress and CPI(M) governments to guarantee a good price for rubber and spices has left the community disillusioned. The BJP has been attempting to convince Christians that the Modi government is a better bet for their economic and social prospects than the Congress or the CPI(M). It has also spoken to the Church’s irrational fears about the conspiratorial “love and narcotic jihad”.
