The church’s truck with Narendra Modi is becoming apparent by each passing day in Kerala as the alert has been sounded for the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.

In Kerala, the Christians are hardly a minority community. They, in fact, run the show in the state. (To state the facts, they are still a minority going by sheer numbers. The Christians are only 19% among a population of 3.34 crore Malayalis with the Hindus (57%) and the Muslims (25%) dominating the demography.)

The chief minister is a God-fearing Orthodox Christian. The finance minister is a God-fearing Catholic. The opinion maker, the largest selling daily newspaper in Kerala – The Malayala Manorama – is run by a God-fearing Orthodox family. At all levels of bureaucracy, including the law and order, there are a significant number of God-fearing Christians.

Secularism is the great ruse that brings together both the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF). The transfer of power happens every five years between the UDF and LDF and, in this affair, BJP has little role to play. So there is no fear factor, when you contemplate the idea of Modi.

That pretty much explains why the Christians in Kerala think they have nothing to worry about Modi becoming the Prime Minister of India. So does the Church leadership. After all the Christians are astute businessmen and they have turned education and healthcare into a much thriving business in Kerala and elsewhere in the country. And what’s Modi’s hallmark? The great leader encourages businessmen. He cuts red tape and makes things easier for business. So that makes him a good man?

Of course, it does. Both the two leading denominations in Kerala Church, the Orthodox Syrian Christians and the Catholics are frocked and ready to dance with Modi. A few weeks ago the supreme leader of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, a church that had once come in for unstinted praise from former RSS boss K S Sudarshan for its roots in India and Indian traditions, Catholicos Baselius Mar Thoma Paulose II, hailed the development initiatives undertaken in Gujarat by the Modi government. He said there would be nothing wrong in supporting Modi if he was committed to maintaining communal tolerance.

In Kottayam while interacting with local BJP leaders the Catholicos said: “Gujarat has made revolutionary strides in the field of industrialisation. The Orthodox community in Gujarat has a good opinion about Modi and his administration. Modi has created a good atmosphere for the members of our Church to set up industries. According to them, they can start the industries without being caught in red-tapism.”

The significant message came on the eve of Christmas. Then, as it always happens, there followed a clarification which said the Church does not support or oppose any political party.

But it is not that simple. The message from the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Church is not a slip of the tongue. Another senior metropolitan from the same Church, Thomas Mar Athanasios, who had earlier served time in Gujarat, has consistently praised Modi and the Gujarat government for its support to the Church.

The Catholics, the most powerful Christian sect in Kerala, too, are ready to embrace Modi. The youngest Cardinal in the Catholic Church, 54-year-old Mar Baselios Cleemis Catholicos, head of the Syro Malankara Catholic Church, was in talks with the state BJP leadership to have a meeting with Modi when the Gujarat CM visited Thiruvananthapuram in April 2013. The meeting did not take place as the Cardinal developed cold feet at the last minute but shows the willingness to negotiate on the part of the Catholic Church.

Not to be left behind, the Jacobite Christians, too, are singing Modi’s praise. Metropolitan Thomas Mar Themothos of the Kottayam diocese of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church has assured the BJP’s national secretary P K Krishnadas that the Church will not oppose BJP or its prime ministerial candidate Modi.

On the political front, the God-fearing Catholic muckraker and the UDF’s chief whip P C George created a flutter by flagging off Modi’s Unity Run in Kerala.

All this only shows that the Church and the Christian leadership in Kerala are blind to the emerging big picture in India. The priests, the politicians, and the businessmen are nothing but naïve in ignoring 2002. May be they would do better to listen to what the Christ said on the way to Golgotha– For if they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?