Insult or satire? Congress post on Pope-Modi meeting draws BJP’s ire

The recent post on X by the Kerala unit of the Congress party about a brief exchange between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pope Francis at the G7 summit in Italy has sparked strong condemnation from the BJP.

The post on X featured a photo of  Modi and Pope Francis greeting each other, and the caption “Finally, the Pope got a chance to meet God!” followed by a smiley emoticon.

This was an obvious reference to Modi’s recent statement that he felt “he was not biological and was sent by God for a purpose”.

BJP condemns Congress’s post

The BJP has taken umbrage at this social media post of the Congress, and has accused the party of insulting PM Modi, Pope Francis, and the Christians.

Kerala BJP president K Surendran posted on X, “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.”

He asked whether Congress leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and KC Venugopal endorsed such comments.

The “satirical” post also drew criticism from Kerala BJP general secretary George Kurian and Amit Malviya, BJP’s IT Cell in charge. Kurian said the post was offensive and hurtful to religious sentiments, especially in the state of Kerala where Christians are a sizeable minority. Malviya said the Islamist-Marxist nexus in the Congress was now insulting Christians after mocking Hindus and deriding their faith. He demanded an apology from former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, a practising Catholic.

Not heresy to joke about God: Congress

Responding to the criticism from the BJP, the Congress was initially unapologetic and quoted a statement from Pope Francis himself that it is not heresy to joke about God.

“When you manage to make intelligent smiles gush from the lips of even one spectator, you make even God smile. Pope Francis said this on Friday, 14^th June on the same day after he met Narendra Modi,” the Congress tweeted.

“Better luck next time,” the party added, tagging K Surendran and George Kurian.

‘Satirical post’

VT Balram, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee vice president said the post was satirical and was aimed at “exposing the shallowness of PM Modi’s public relations efforts”.

“It’s Modi himself who claimed that he is not a normal human being but sent by God. This particular tweet is satirical,” added Balram.

Political figures not exempt from criticism: Congress

The Congress in a statement said that it had no intention to insult any religion or religious figure, but maintained that political figures, including PM Modi, are not exempt from criticism. The party said that no Congress worker would even entertain the remotest thought of insulting the Pope, whom Christians see as God-like. But it said it had no qualms about mocking Narendra Modi who “insults the believers of this country by calling himself God”.

The Congress however deleted the original post that had sparked off the controversy, and apologised for “causing any emotional or psychological distress to Christians”.

Congress challenges BJP to apologise for Manipur

Trying to have the last word, the Congress challenged the BJP to apologise to the Christian community for its failure to act when “churches were burned during the ethnic violence in Manipur”.

Congress spokesperson Mathew Antony said PM Modi has kept a “studied silence” on Manipur, where minorities have been persecuted and places of worship destroyed. He accused the prime minister of not uttering a word when minorities faced persecution in Assam and the north-east. He said his party was calling out the PM’s “hollowness towards the minority community”, and that the camaraderie and diplomacy (with the Pope) does not mean anything serious by the PM towards the Christian community.

In the meantime, there has been no comment from the Catholic church about the whole issue.