CPI-M shouldn't use Kerala saints' photos to get votes: Church

Alappuzha (Kerala), Feb 17 (IANS) 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.