Was Jesus Christ a Communist? The politically explosive question has been doing rounds for the last few days in the state.

The credit for stirring up this controversy out of the blue should, in fact, go to CPM comrades who now believe that Christ was a fellow-comrade!

CPM’s new found love for Christ, as expected, has baffled Congress leaders and also the members of Catholic Church in the State.

They vow to defeat its nefarious designs aimed at hijacking Christ from the Churches thus promising a rather prolonged entertainment for all; including the proletarians and neo-rich!

But, the question is: How did Christ, the man who supposedly performed many miracles including the feat of walking on water, found membership in the rationalist club overnight?

Those who keenly observe the politics in the state wouldn’t hesitate even for a moment to attribute it to CPM’s populist political policies. And they’re not entirely wrong either.

For everyone knows, comrades and Christians in the state have been on a confrontationist path for quite sometime now.

Lecturer of Asian Studies Satakunta University Finland Sunandan Roy Chowdhury says the current controversy once again has exposed the Communists’ ideological bankruptcy.

An astute international observer of Left politics, Sunandan, also convenor of Forum for Peace and Democracy, feels comrades have been groping in ideological darkness for long.

Ideological darkness invaded the comrades internationally even before the Berlin Wall fall in 1989 and the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1990, according to him. “They touted a set of slogans but the ideological kernel has become hollow, particularly, after the Soviet Union military intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968”, he said.

In India too, the Communist movement got divided many times, particularly, with the Naxalite emergence in the late 1960s, Sunandan noted. “They failed to create a dynamic ideological opposition to the global capitalist order. So, I’m not surprised Christ is now their new comrade”, he quipped.

But, is it wrong to call Christ a Communist? Sunandan feels it’s an atrocious idea since Communism as an ideology emerged only in the 19th century Western Europe.

Having primarily emerged through the writings of Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, it was the continuation of two other important ideological swings, Renaissance and Enlightenment.

Renaissance and Enlightenment were specific movements where the European world moved away from Christianity to secular directions.

Communism emerged in the negation of Christianity and not in the assertion of Christ, Sunandan argued. He also felt anyone who fights against exploitation can’t become a Communist.

Like Christ, there’re several other religious leaders who spread the message of brotherhood and anti-exploitation, most notably Prophet Mohammed. “Does that make him a Communist? Even Nanak was not a Communist. So, to call Christ a Communist is quite anachronistic,” Sunandan said.

He’s certain, those who see a Communist in Christ don’t know anything about Communism, Christianity, Christ or any of the world religions.

Going by what Sunandan says one would be tempted to believe comrades have committed another historical blunder by branding Christ as a Communist.

However, it would be wrong to jump into such a conclusion. For, it’s not for the first time someone has labelled Christ as a Communist.

Osho, the spiritual giant, known for his frank yet refreshing take on both mundane and spiritual affairs had always seen a Communist in Christ.

In his celebrated work “The Great Challenge” Osho writes that Jesus – a mixture of Mahavira and Mao – was the first Communist.

“The whole country was poor and suffering while the temple was getting richer. Jesus entered the temple with a whip and overturned the money-lenders boards,” Osho observes. Jesus not only created chaos in the temple but also beat up the money-lenders. “You can’t conceive of Buddha doing this, Jesus was fiery and rebellious,” he continues.

Jesus, Osho says, was not only concerned with spirituality but economics, politics, everything... one can’t even conceive of Lenin, Mao or Marx without a Jesus in history.

Osho finds Communism’s basic seed in Christ’s revolutionary assertion that a camel can pass through the eye of a needle sooner than a rich man can enter the Kingdom of God. “That’s why only Christianity could give birth to Communism, neither Hinduism nor any other religion in the world”, he concludes.

Those who lambast the comrades now for their efforts to usurp the ownership rights of Christ were most curiously silent when Osho made such remarks!

Be that as it may, the “clean-up” operation that Christ began still remains unfinished. For, the hypocrites crucified Christ and also his inner transformation.

So, it doesn’t matter whether Christ lives in churches or inside the CPM offices. What’s more important is living up to his teachings! On this score, organised religions which claim inner unity have no doubt failed. Otherwise, there’s no reason why they still indulge in the nasty number game.

This being the reality, one can’t be but sceptical towards our well-organised consumerist comrades who’re in a tearing hurry to embrace their new champ – Christ!