Hallelujah! This Pastor Thinks DMK Win Was Divine Intervention

M.K. Stalin and the DMK are convinced that they won the April assembly elections comprehensively with the support of all sections of society. But a Christian priest has a different view바카라�he believes the DMK바카라�s win was nothing but alms from Christians and Muslims. 바카라�Even if the temple ­administration minister visits any number of temples or helped reclaim their lands, the Hindus will never vote for the DMK. But for the signal from church leaders and their campaign among Christians, the DMK could not have won so handsomely. Their victory is nothing but alms from us,바카라� said Father George Ponniah (in pic), a Catholic priest from Kanyakumari, during a memorial meeting for Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, who died of Covid-related complications while in custody in the Bhima-Koregaon case.

Father Ponniah also pointed out how a DMK candidate in Kanyakumari lost because he had dissuaded Christian priests from campaigning for him, saying it would antagonise Hindu voters. 바카라�The winning BJP candidate M.R. Gandhi claims he walks barefoot as he does not want to insult mother earth and Bharat Mata. But we Christians wear shoes and footwear because we do not want to be ­infected by the same Bharat Mata,바카라� Ponniah said, and went on to make unsavoury remarks on PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah. While angry BJP workers filed a spate of police complaints against him across the state, even the ruling DMK was fuming at Ponniah바카라�s uncharitable remarks about 바카라�alms바카라�.

Other Christian leaders and state minority commission chairman Peter Alphonse, a Congress leader, were equally aghast at the priest바카라�s chutzpah. 바카라�The DMK won with the support of all communities. In spite of a sustained campaign by the BJP that the DMK was ­anti-Hindu, Hindus voted in large numbers for the DMK. So Ponniah바카라�s remarks reek of ignorance and ­arrogance,바카라� observed Alphonse who also condemned the remarks against Modi and Shah.

After a swift nod from the DMK government, the police arrested Ponniah for hate speech, and for once the DMK and the BJP were on the same page.

(This appeared in the print edition as "Alms and the Pastor")

By G.C. Shekhar in Chennai