Click to play videoThiruvanthapuram (Kerala): The Chinese Communist Party has taken the unprecedented step of accommodating religion into the country's Constitution, but for Communists closer home, God is still best left to the believers.
Kerala's Left leaders say religion is still something the party can do without.
Says state Minister for Finance, Dr Thomas Issac, "We ideologically believe in dialectical materialism. Our world outlook is like that. But at the same time we are not rationalists. For rationalists, the fundamental difference is between theists and atheists. For us even if you are a theist and a capitalist, you are our class enemy, but if you a believer and from the toiling class we will consider you our brother."
However, despite its apparent openness, the party is at loggerheads with the church across Kerala, so much so that the Changnaserry diocese of Catholic Christians has said it will not allow any Communist Christian to be part of its administration.
The government is also trying to extend its control to the state's educational institutions, most of which are run by the Church.
Analysts say the Chinese example won't work in Kerala because the clash between state and religion isn't just ideological, it's political as well.
Says journalist, BRP Bhaskar, "There are some issues on which the Communist and the religious institutions, especially the church, are on two sides of the divide. Both are essential power brokers."
So for the Communist Party, God, at least for now, will continue to have little place in God's own country.
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