Jalandhar bypoll: Catholic churches not to enter political arena
Deepkamal Kaur
Jalandhar, April 7
Having formed a new political outfit, United Punjab Party, Pentecostal churches have failed to get the much-needed support from Catholic churches ahead of the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll on May 10.
Life devoted to social work
Even if a new Christian political party has been formed, we will not enter political arena. Our life is devoted only to religion and social work. Father Thomas KJ, Bishop house
Will stay away from politics
The Christian community has a lot of issues, which need to be addressed by the governments. Though such matters can be highlighted by having a political representation, we want to keep ourselves away from the active politics. Father Anthony Thuruthy, Sacred heart catholic church
The formation of the new political outfit was announced by the Pentecostal Christian Parbandhak Committee at the Open Door Church of Pastor Harpreet Deol at Khojewal village on April 3.
As the church has a massive following comprising Dalit community of Jalandhar, the idea behind floating the new party was to tap this particular votebank.
Though the chief of the United Punjab Party claimed to enjoy the support of Catholic Christians, Catholic churches maintained that they would not indulge in any political activity.
Father Anthony Thuruthy of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, said, “Pentecostal churches have neither approached us nor do we intend to interfere in any of their political activities.”
He said, “It is true that the Christian community has a lot of issues, which need to be addressed by the governments. We need land for the graveyards and the Dalits who convert to Christianity cannot claim the benefits, which they get as Hindus or Sikhs.”
He said, “Though such issues can be highlighted by putting pressure on the authorities or having a political representation, we want to keep ourselves away from the active politics. We cannot impose our political ideology on anyone.”
Father Thomas KJ of the Bishop House said, “Even if a new Christian political party has been formed, we will not enter the political arena. Our life is devoted only to religion and social work. Anyways, we cannot get into electioneering and ask the community to vote for a particular party.”
Anjelina J Brar, a Jalandhar-based lawyer, who converted to Catholicism and led the Good Friday procession today, said, “If we can have a party which takes up the issues of Sikhs and another is pro-Hindus, why can’t we have the one which works for the cause of Christians?”
