Thiruvananthapuram: Defending the display of a
portrait of Jesus Christ at a CPI-M organised exhibition here,
party General Secretary Prakash Karat today said it was not
done to run down religion or basic tenets of Christianity.
Terming it as an "unnecessary controversy", Karat in his
inaugural address to the CPI(M)`s state conference here quoted
Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro to buttress the point
that Christianity and Communism could co-exist.
"There are ten thousand times more coincidences of
Christianity with Communism than with capitalism", was what
Castro once told a meeting of Catholic priests, he said.
Terming the controversy over the display of the picture
of crucified Christ at the party show as "unnecessary and
unwarranted", he said CPI-M had no intention to combat any
religion though it was unrelenting in its fight against
communalism of all hues.
"The CPI-M does not believe in combating any religion. Our
fight is against communalism of any variety", he said.
The Catholic church and the Congress party in Kerala had
taken strong objection to the display of the Jesus portrait
at the party exhibition terming it a `blasphemous act`
intended to make narrow political gain.
Besides the Jesus portrait, the CPI-M was also embarrassed
over a political version of the famous `The Last Supper`
painting of Leonardo Davinci with US President Barrack Obama
as the central figure in place of Jesus Christ, allegedly put
up by party workers to depict the decline of capitalism.
PTI
