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Kerala Congress (M) supremo Jose K Mani is being facilitated by party colleague and water resources minister Roshy Augustine. (KB Hayachandran/South First)
The anti-transhipment seaport project protest at Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram has unexpectedly left the Kerala Congress (Mani) — abbreviated as KC(M) — squirming.
KC(M) supremo Jose K Mani has found himself caught in the crossfire, with neither the government nor the protesters led by the Latin Catholic Church refusing to blink.
The Roman Catholic Church has been the bedrock of KC(M), ever since Jose’s father KM Mani founded it in 1979. And ever since its formation, the party had frequently switched sides between the UDF and LDF. The latest was in December 2020, when it joined the LDF camp.
The state government appears quite firm in its resolve to take the protest head-on after it turned violent, having registered cases against 3,000 people, including the archbishop of the Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram, priests Eugine H Pereira, Lawrence Kulas, George Patrick, and Phiovioos D’cruz, among others.
This has clearly angered the Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference (KCBC), an influential body comprising heads of different Catholic denominations, and it has reportedly expressed its unhappiness over the KC(M)’s “failure” to protect the church’s interests in the state Cabinet and LDF meetings.
The KCBC specifically targeted Jose and Roshy Augustine, the minister for water resources in the Pinarayi Vijayan Cabinet. It felt the KC(M), as the third-largest constituent in the LDF, could have ensured no criminal cases were filed against the clergy.
Knowing very well that he cannot afford to antagonise the church, Jose K Mani has now convened a meeting of the party’s Political Affairs Committee.
The question now is: Will the KC(M) move in to protect the clergy or toe the LDF line?
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