Wary of BJP rise in Nagaland, Church is asking community to ‘stand firm’

“Pray that the communal forces working against Christians in India will be brought to justice. Pray for the Christians to stand firm in their faith… Pray that the people in authority will rule the country justly with a human face and deal sternly with those who sow the seeds of hatred.”

This was not the only church in Nagaland where this message was shared with those who assembled for Sunday service. The Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC), the apex body of Baptist churches in the state, shared the message with all the 1,708 churches across the state affiliated to it.

In a state where Christians make up more than 87% of the population — of whom a majority are Baptists — a section of the influential Church has been watching the political developments carefully.

While the message shared across churches in the state is relatively subtle, NBCC general secretary Reverend Zelhou Keyho has been vocal about his concern over the consistently increasing strength of the BJP in the state. He had voiced his apprehensions ahead of the 2018 elections as well.

“I have no problem with the BJP as a political party but they need to come out clean from their connection with the RSS. The RSS… is playing behind the scene… That’s why I say we have to be careful. When there is (such) a force forming a political wing and running policies, obviously the country will be swayed towards one particular set of beliefs… I’m not against the people in the BJP but I’m not comfortable with their policies,” he told The Indian Express.

State BJP members have been trying to convince that the party is “not anti-Christian”. “Questions of persecution come up every election. But the people have come to understand that the BJP is not anti-Christian… Almost all our candidates are Christians,” said Nagaland BJP chief spokesperson Kuputo Shohe.

The party’s use of Christian symbolism has also not gone down well with the Church. One of the BJP’s active campaigners in the state is Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs John Barla. A recent video of Barla holding up the hand of Nagaland BJP president Temjen Imna Along during a campaign and shouting “Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!” drew criticism from church groups, including the NBCC, which accused him of “abusing” Christian faith for political gains. The BJP stated that the gesture was not to gain political mileage but because Barla “felt in his heart to call on the name of God”.

“We, the members of the Nagaland BJP, are also Christians as much as members of other political parties. Whenever there is any BJP programme in the state, be it big or small, we always make it a point to invite a pastor or a deacon to come and pray and invoke God’s blessings for the programme to follow,” BJP Nagaland media convener Sapralu Nyekha told reporters on Saturday.

Rev Keyho said his understanding is that ideology falls flat in a state where politics is driven by power. “There is no ideology here. People get lost during elections. Money and power have become the issue here. We know that they [BJP] are pumping in a lot of money,” he said.

Rosemary Dzuvichu, professor in the English Department at Nagaland University and Adviser to the Nagaland Mothers Association, who has been observing the BJP’s rise in the state, believes the party has also built a kind of “acceptability”, especially through leaders like Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton, party state president Along, and MLA and BJP national spokesperson Mmhonlumo Kikon.

“The fact is that now there are prominent Naga faces who are part of the BJP, like Patton, who is a very strong Naga nationalist. The very fact that he leads the BJP and the alliance and holds the Deputy CM’s chair is influencing to a large extent the way people look at the BJP. And you have an articulate young man like Mr Kikon, young educated people who are available for any kind of justification and clarification. And of course, you have Temjen Imna Along who is sharp at social media tactics. With all of this combined, I think there’s a form of acceptability, especially among young people who are looking for a change. The very fact that it is not going to be a ‘BJP state’ but an alliance with a regional party, also gives it more acceptability,” she said.

She also said the BJP and the RSS are not new to a section of the Naga people. “The BJP-RSS has had its roots in Nagaland for decades. There are certain pockets where they have entrenched themselves. They support traditional religion, traditional ways of life, saying it has similarities with the Hindu ways of life,” she said.