Display of a Jesus Christ painting at a CPI-M exhibition here sparked off a debate with Church leaders seeing it as an attempt to woo Christians but the party justified it saying Jesus was the voice of the suppressed.

The exhibition “Marx is Correct” is on the history of struggles for social and political emancipation. The picture of the crucified Christ has a blurb below it which desc-ribes him “as a social reformer who emancipated Jews from slavery”. Sections in the Catholic Church view-ed it as a CPI-M attempt to shore up its support base by winning Chri-stian support.