During the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi met and posed with George Ponnaiah, the Catholic priest who disparaged Bhumi Devi and mocked Hindus saying “they can’t even pull a hair out of Christians”. The priest’s speech created a lot of uproar as he had also said that the formation of the DMK government was a handout provided by the Christian community. He was arrested while trying to flee to a foreign country after several complaints were filed against him.
Photos of Rahul Gandhi meeting the enraged anti-Hindu Catholic priest of Kanyakumari, at his latest Bharat Jodo Yatra gimmick, flooded social media yesterday.
Rahul Gandhi seems to have stayed in one of the institutions of the Diocese of Kottar where he met Catholic priests including George Ponnaiah. A video of her chatting with them about whether or not Jesus is a God has surfaced on social media. Even there, the priest can be seen showing his hatred for Hindu deities. When Rahul asks if Jesus is a form of God, George Ponnaiah says, “Jesus is the only true God. Not like Shakti…or that power. He is a god in human form,” mocking Hindu beliefs and committing sacrilege against Dharma.
George Ponnaiah made headlines last year when his video mocking Hindu deities and wishing Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah a miserable death surfaced on social media. The parish priest of Pannavilai in Kanyakumari under the Diocese of Kottar, George Ponnaiah took part in an event organized to condemn the closure of churches, the banning of holding prayer meetings, the denial of permits to build churches and to pay tribute to the Naxal sympathizer Stanislaus Lourdusamy in Arumanai, Kanyakumari.
He mocked Kanyakumari MP and BJP leader MR Gandhi and denigrated Hindu deities and beliefs in the process. He said, “Gandhi doesn’t wear chappals saying that Bharat Mata shouldn’t be stepped on. But we wear shoes because we don’t want the impurities of Bharat Mata to stain us. The TN government is giving out free chappals so we don’t get scabies from Bhooma Devi. Bhooma Devi is a dangerous person. You will get scabies and psoriasis from her. This is why you should wear chappals.
He also threatened the Hindus saying that the Christian community has already increased in Kanyakumari from 42% to 62% and is in the majority now. “We will go to 70% in a few days and we will continue to grow. You can’t stop us. I want to issue this as a warning to our Hindu brothers. You can’t even pull out a single hair,” he said. He also did not leave the badly treated Brahmins. He derided archakas in Hindu temples saying, “Don’t think that pastors are like those pujaris who ring the bell. We are well educated”.
Hindu Post had covered George Ponnaiah’s shady dealings and dealings when he was arrested and Hindus in Kanyakumari launched a campaign against the purchase of products from church-run businesses. The Vatican took notice and the Apostolic Nuncio, Vatican representative in Bharat, sent a letter to the Catholic Bishops of TN. He noted that TN priests have “a tendency to create and run independent trusts that violate canon law.” The Nuncio felt that “these trusts become bases of financial and political power for the priests concerned”.
He had directed that “priests and religious should not be directly associated with any independent or self-governing trusts or corporations or non-profit corporations unless their involvement has been specifically approved by”. So Rahul Gandhi seems to be dating a priest that even the Vatican has identified as corrupt. It should be noted that Gandhi spends most of his time in churches and church-run institutions during this yatra.
