By our religious Correspondent
Thrissur, March 07 (IVC) The crown offered by the noted cine star and BJP’s candidate from the Thrissur Lok Sabha Constituency in the ensuing elections to the 19th Lok Sabha, to Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral has become a great controversy whether it was gold or copper.
It is the question, to be or not to be gold, asked among the people here. According to media reports, the corban offered by Gopi to the deity of the Lourdes Cathedral was not of gold but it was overlaid with forty grams of gold over the crown made out of copper.
The crown was offered by Suresh to the deity of the Loudes Cathedral on January 15 on the eve of Suresh Gopi’s daughter’s grand marriage at Gurvayur in which the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Narendra Damodar Modi had attended the wedding and blessed the couples besides spending hours with the wedding.
The controversy erupted immediately after presenting the crown to the deity as it fell down and broke into pieces. The pessimists propagated that it was an ominous sign and not an auspicious one for it fell down and broke. It had national and international media coverage as it was a Hindu BJP leader presented a crown, whether it was gold or copper, to the deity of the Church
The social media reported recently that the crown weighed 666 grams , of which only six grams gold and the remaining was copper.
When contacted, the Church sources said that the church hierarchy was not skeptic of the quality and quantity of the crown. It was not proper for the Church to screen the objects of corbans received by the church. The sources said that the church has no ground at all that a man of Suresh Gopi’s status and dignity would hoodwink the deity of the Lourdes Cathedral, by offering a copper crown and publicise it as gold crown.
The Cathedral was the appropriate authority to say the crown offered by Gopi was of god or copper. It was not the practice of the Church to screen each and every article received it as corbans as it would have adverse effect. The Church sources said that it was the cheap political strategy of the opposition to tarnish the image of Suresh Gopi to a great extent for which the Church would not be a party at all.
When contacted the goldsmith who made the crown for Suresh Gopi said on anonymity said that the cine star had entrusted with him some gold directing him to make a beautiful and attractive crown and he returned the remaining gold to Gopi after the work of crown was over.
It was difficult to believe that some quantity of gold was handed over to the goldsmith without ascertaining the exact quantity of gold.
The mystery was surrounded over the quality of the crown as neither the Church nor the Suresh Gopi specifically stated the crown was with gold or copper. The fresh controversy came up in public when a UDF councilor of the Thrissur Corporation put forward a question in the parish meeting about the quality and quantity of the crown offered by Suresh Gopi to the deity of the Lourdes Cathedral on Jan 15.
