The BJP chose Easter Sunday to initiate its first-ever outreach program for the Capital’s Christian community hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi was expected to visit Gole Market’s Sacred Heart Cathedral. Carried out across various areas such as Mahavir Enclave, Janakpuri, Uttam Nagar, Hari Nagar and Vikaspuri in the west Delhi Parliamentary Constituency where the community predominantly resides, though in pockets, the program saw party workers pay door-to-door visits to Christian households with Easter greeting cards in Modi’s name. “In all, we established contact with between 900 to 1000 homes; this was the first step towards connecting with the community in the city. Given the positive response we received, there will be more such initiatives over the coming days and especially on Christmas,” said Ashish Sood, who conceptualised and led the program. Sood, who is a general secretary in the party’s Delhi unit as well as the party’s co-in charge for Jammu & Kashmir, claimed the program was mainly aimed at establishing a rapport with the community in the city and meant to illustrate its “inclusive approach.” According to a senior party leader, this was the first time that the BJP had reached out to the Christian “micro-minority” in the city taking a cue from the Prime Minister’s recent speeches and directions to reach out to minorities — especially during back-to-back addresses to the BJP national executive — as well as in speeches made after the party’s recent electoral conquests in north east India. With a population of 1,46,093, the Christian community constitutes 0.87% of the city’s population, according to the Census of India 2011 recorded in the Delhi Statistical Handbook 2022-23. Though much behind other communities in numbers — the 2011 Census recorded the Sikh population of 5,70,581 constituting 3.40%, Muslims with 21,58,684 forming 12.86% and 1,66,231 Jains accounting for 0.99% — of Delhi’s population, the Christian community had recorded the largest increase in this respect. The Christian population of Delhi, according to the 2011 Census, had recorded an increase of over 12% compared to a little over 7% for the Jain and around 3% for the Sikh communities between 2001 and 2011. The Muslim population had recorded a rise over almost 33% over the same period. The Prime Minister had, during the BJP national executive meeting in Delhi in January, asked party members to reach out to every section of society including marginalised and minority communities sans “electoral considerations.” In the last such meeting in July 2022, Modi had asked BJP leaders from northeast India, who belong to the Christian community, to visit Kerala to push its “Sabka saath, sabka vishwas, sabka vishwas” agenda.
