Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said that a recent article in a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh mouthpiece about the property owned in the country by the Catholic Church indicates the "true mindset" of the right-wing organisation and the alleged "majority communalism of the Sangh Parivar".
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi too alleged the "Waqf Bill attacks Muslims" and "sets a precedent to target other communities in future".
In a post on microblogging site X, Gandhi shared an article which claimed that the RSS has now shifted focus to Catholic Church land after the passage of Waqf Bill.
"I had said that the Waqf Bill attacks Muslims now but sets a precedent to target other communities in the future," he wrote on X.
"It didn't take long for the RSS to turn its attention to Christians," the Congress leader wrote referring to the article.
"The Constitution is the only shield that protects our people from such attacks -- and it is our collective duty to defend it," Gandhi wrote.
In a statement issued by his office, Vijayan said that though the article was removed from the website of the RSS mouthpiece, it gives some "negative signals".
The CM also alleged that it should be seen as part of "a grand plan to target the minority groups one by one and destroy them step by step".
A similar view was expressed by Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan who claimed that the article shows that the RSS has now set its eyes on the property of the church.
In his statement, the CM further claimed that it also shows the Sangh Parivar's "intense majority communalism which is against other religious communities".
Vijayan urged all progressive democratic secular movements to jointly resist such moves.
Satheesan, while speaking to reporters in Kozhikode, claimed that in the article the RSS has asked the central government to acquire the over seven crore hectares of land belonging to the Catholic Church.
He contended that according to the RSS, the church property was illegally leased during the British era.
Satheesan claimed that the RSS demand in the article came on the same day when the Waqf Bill was passed in the Parliament.
"We warned that if the Waqf Bill is passed, the Church Bill will follow," he added.
The opposition leader said that such actions indicate that while the Sangh Parivar was trying to appease Christians in Kerala, it was attacking them in the rest of the country.
He expressed hope that the Christians will recognise them as "wolves in sheep's clothing".
Responding to the remarks, BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the article, which was the subject matter of the discussion, was removed after it was found to be untrue.
He also said that owning land was not a crime, but trying to grab land "like the Congress and the Waqf" allegedly did in Karnataka was wrong.
Thalassery Archbishop Joseph Pamplany on the other hand said there was "no need to try and scare the Church by saying that a Church Bill will come next" as its properties have been earned through hard work.
"Only those who have amassed property through illegal means would be scared if a Bill comes. The Church is not scared of any Church Bill. It will take legal recourse, if required, at that time," he said.
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