Narendra Modi sat poker-faced as the choir sang Hallelujah, the popular Christian hymn extolling Jesus as the “King of kings and Lord of lords” during the swearing-in ceremony of the new NDPP-BJP coalition government in Kohima, Nagaland.
It must be said to the credit of the Hindu Hriday Samrat – King of Hindu Hearts - that he did not squirm, smirk or wince at the display of Christian religiosity during the official function, where he was no doubt the star attraction outshining even the wily Neiphiu Rio, appointed chief minister for a fifth straight term.
But Modi did look glum. He was definitely uptight and expressionless, unlike Governor La Ganesan sitting beside him. I noticed the RSS pracharak, born in the temple town of Thanjavur, rhythmically tapping his thigh during the full-throated rendition of George Handel’s lyrics.
If a bhajan or kirtan were being sung instead, Modi would have surely joined in vocally and bodily, proudly underlining his faith, as he did at the Sant Ravidas temple in Delhi’s Karol Bagh a little over a year ago. The prime minister says that aarti on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi fills his “inner soul” with “new energy”. And he has been photographed solemnly clapping during kirtan and bhajan recitations, sending bhakts into raptures and adding to his vote bank. But Hallelujah evidently left him cold.
Modi got away with nonchalance in Nagaland. But it is high time he addressed the mounting grievances of the embattled Christian community in the mainland, reeling under merciless attacks from Hindutva forces. The BJP-RSS has customised Hindutva in overwhelmingly Christian-majority states like Nagaland (home to the world’s largest Baptist population), Meghalaya and Mizoram in its pursuit of power, but oppressing and suppressing Christians is par for the course elsewhere.
Barely three days before Modi graced the oath-taking ceremony in Kohima where a Christian hymn put him out of sorts, the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG) – a body of retired senior civil servants which doesn’t hesitate to speak truth to power – told the PM in writing about “rising attacks” and “increasing incidents of outright discrimination” against Christians under his government’s watch. The letter cited statistics compiled by the United Christian Forum which reveal that attacks on Christians climbed from 279 in 2020 to 505 in 2021 and 511 in 2022. Naming several BJP-ruled states as the worst offenders, it listed major cases of targeted violence and hate crimes in the past year, including attacks on churches, graveyards, schools, clinics and religious gatherings.
According to the 93 distinguished signatories belonging to the All India and Central Services, Christians are being hounded on trumped-up charges of conversions, despite constituting a mere 2.3 percent of the population and the percentage remaining more or less the same since the first census in 1951! They wrote: “Yet, in the minds of some, this minuscule number poses a threat to the 80 per cent of the population that is Hindu! The principal allegation against Christians is one of forcible conversions, and because of this accusation, they have been subjected to attacks — verbal, physical, and psychological, against both their persons and against their institutions.”
Unfortunately, the letter failed to flag the legitimacy being accorded to the insidious charge by the highest judiciary, entertaining motivated petitions by BJP leaders against “forcible”, “deceitful” and “fraudulent” conversions through “intimidation” and “allurement”. Last year, two apex court judges remarked that conversions are indeed “very dangerous” and can impact the “security of the country” and the “freedom of religion and conscience”. Such observations have been rightly criticised for “spectre-mongering” and “vague terminology”.
Earlier, anti-conversion personalities like Ashwin Upadhyay made very little or no headway in the courts of law; as recently as in 2021 Supreme Court judges called his petition “harmful” and even considered a monetary penalty to rein him in, but are now finding the bench more receptive. All this is creating a climate of fear among the minorities.
No sooner were the results of the recent Assembly elections announced than the BJP decided to form coalition governments with Rio’s NDPP in Nagaland and Conrad Sangma’s NPP in Meghalaya. In both states, the BJP is playing second fiddle as a junior partner of the regional party. But Modi lost no time in claiming that the poll outcome proved the BJP’s acceptance among Christians. He said: “Minorities were fearful about the BJP for years but the people of Goa and now Christians in Nagaland and Meghalaya are supporting us.”
If that is indeed true, it is now Modi’s turn to reciprocate by ensuring that Christians across India don’t live in fear and are treated fairly by the executive and the law. Equally importantly, my prime minister should learn to appreciate a hymn instead of looking so disinterested.
(The writer is former deputy editor of Outlook.)