Politics of cross.

In Kerala, there is a bit of new controversy over a cross when the government officers removed a big cross( weighing one tone) on an encroached land on the top of a hill near Munnar, famous high-range tourist destination( also infamous for destruction of environment through illegal encroachments and constructions)
Cross has been a symbol of power- and became what it is today when Roman Empire adopted Cross as a symbol of power when Christianity became the official religion of the empire in 380 CE. Many of the now well known symbol Christ on the cross and the crucifixion emerged only by 5th century CE.

There is hardly any evidence of using the Cross as symbol in the early Christian communities. In fact the first known Christian iconography date back only in 200 CE. It is only towards the end of second century that it became a part of the iconography of some of the early Christian sects. Cross actually became a symbol of power when Constantine I used it as a symbol in the war in 312 CE. In fact its significance was paradoxically due to the war that killed the enemies of Constantine that made him the Emperor of the Roman Empire.
 The cross began achieve new symbolic significance only after the Edict of Milan in 313 CE and it became a symbol of Roman Empire that adopted Christianity as the official religion in 380 AD by Theodosius 1.

Hence Cross is basically emerged as the official symbol of power of the Roman Empire. And cross was also used in many pagan cultures before the time of Jesus.
Though Cross is now central to Christian iconography as holy cross, it was always a symbol of power. Cross was also the symbol of war in crusades (1095 to 1272 Nine crusades) over centuries that killed an estimated number of 1. 7 million people.