Twenty20 chief Sabhu Jacob slams church heads for 'political exploitation' of FCRA issue

Kochi, Apr 12 (PTI) NDA leader and Twenty20 chairman Sabhu M Jacob on Sunday accused certain church heads of "politically exploiting" the FCRA amendment issue during the assembly polls in Kerala.

He argued that it was improper for some religious leaders to continue criticising the proposed bill and adopt a stand favouring a particular political party even after discussions on it were halted in Parliament following the intervention of state NDA leaders.

Jacob’s remarks come amid a raging row over the critical comments made by BJP leaders P C George and his son Shone George against certain bishops and the Church-backed Malayalam daily Deepika over its reported stance favouring the UDF ahead of the Assembly polls.

“Certain church heads used the FCRA issue politically and utilised it for their personal political mileage,” he alleged while speaking to a Malayalam TV channel.

Acknowledging the public apprehension regarding the amendment bill, Jacob said NDA leaders in the state, including himself, Rajeev Chandrasekhar and others, intervened and ensured that discussions on the matter were stopped.

“Despite this, certain church heads again criticised the Bill and adopted a stand favouring a political party, which was wrong,” he said.

The NDA leader clarified that the remarks made by Shone George were his "personal views" and need not be interpreted as the formal position of the coalition.

Justifying the comments of Shone George, he said the leader had made such remarks as the church-supported daily had openly taken such a political stand.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)