Still on pilgrimage to India, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams may be about to be used as leverage in local elections. (Ahem!) Not that it’s new that he should find himself an unwitting chess piece. Still:
Unknown to Rowan Williams, the principal leader of the Church of England, both the ruling Left and the Congress are looking to make political gains from his October 23-28 trip, which comes at a time Kerala faces panchayat elections.
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“Everyday, we are being flooded with requests from all the political parties,” [said an official from Kerala United Theological Seminary]. “If some want to click photographs with the Archbishop, others want to give him a public reception. The Congress politicians are more open; the Leftists are quite secretive.”
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Some politicians even want Williams to make an indirect appeal to Christian voters, who make up a fifth of the state’s electorate. But although the Kerala Church has seldom shied away from anti-Left politics, the seminary official said Williams would not accept the political requests.
Our advice, based on what happened a year ago: If someone should wake the Archbishop in the middle of the night and ask him to read a statement, he should kindly demur and get more sleep.