Kerala’s Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Saturday began a bid to pacify the State’s mighty Catholic Church which had declared war against his Government over its decision to water down own liquor policy, which had originally envisaged total liquor ban in ten years.
A day after the anti-liquor committee of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council held a token ‘standing stir’ at Kozhikode demanding revocation of the changes brought to the liquor policy, Chandy held a closed-door meeting with Bishop Mar Remegiose Injananiyil of the Thamarassery diocese, who was also the chairman of the KCBC’s anti-liquor council, on Saturday.
Refusing to divulge the details of the discussions with the Bishop at the diocesan office in Kozhikode, the Chief Minister said that the meeting was satisfactory. However, sources in the Congress’s ‘A’ group headed by Chandy said that the subject of the discussions was the Church's anti-Government stand over the liquor policy issue.
Chandy made the flash visit to the diocesan office following the continuous exchange of unpleasant words between the KCBC’s anti-liquor committee and two of his Cabinet colleagues, Cultural Affairs Minister KC Joseph and Excise Minister K Babu. Joseph had gone to the extent of even saying that the Church committee had some hidden agenda behind its agitation.
Despite the confidence shown by the Chief Minister about the outcome of the meeting, it was not immediately clear whether the Bishop had agreed for a ceasefire. However, Fr TJ Antony, general secretary of the anti-liquor committee, said their agitations would go on and that he had not received any fresh instructions from the diocesan office or the KCBC.
KCBC chief Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Catholicos had the other day said that the agitation against the dilution of the liquor policy was being held not by the KCBC but by its anti-liquor committee. Congress leaders had interpreted this as an indication of the Church's wish to distance away from the agitation but Fr Antony asserted that this interpretation was wrong.
The standoff between the Chandy regime and the anti-liquor committee of the Church, which had been a supporter of the Congress traditionally, had intensified after the latter announced a few days ago that it would ensure that the people’s representatives who were supporting the changes Chandy had brought to the liquor policy did not win elections in the future.
The war between the Congress-led UDF regime and the Church began after the Government on December 18 decided to dilute its own liquor policy by revoking the earlier order declaring Sundays as no-booze days and deciding to allot wine-and-beer parlour licences to all the 418 bars that had been closed down on March 31 for lack of required facilities.
The KCBC alleged that this dilution of the liquor policy declared on August 22, which had aimed to implement total liquor ban within ten years, was a betrayal of the people by the Government and a move to initiate even adolescents into the world of booze by opening wine and beer parlour across the State.