The activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have irked the people of the Christian dominated states of the North Eastern India.
These things have put the state units of BJP in the region in an uncomfortable position. This is because of the affiliation the saffron political party maintains with the RSS and the VHP. All the more, the man with such background heading the BJP government at the Centre has fueled the situation. The RSS is the ideological parent of the BJP from which Narendra Modi came. For this reason, the unpalatable activities of not only the RSS, the VHP, the BJP but also the NDA government are bound to boomerang in this part of the country.
One best instance was the recent protest by Christian workers in front of the BJP office in Dimapur. They staged a sit-in protest in front of the Dimapur BJP office at Super Market area against the spate of attacks on Christian institutions in New Delhi.
Those attacks were suspected to be carried out by activists of RSS, VHP, Sang Parivar and Bajrang Dal and not by the BJP workers. But the Christian workers would target the BJP here in Dimapur. Some of the placards used by the Dimapur Christian workers read–‘No to Hindutva, yes to secularism,’ ‘India is a free country’, Give us the freedom of worship,’ ‘RSS means Rashtriya Sangh SNAKE Sangh.’ The Dimapur Christian workers called these attackers as ‘safron forces’. “We the Christian community in Nagaland strongly condemn the recent attacks on churches in the national capital New Delhi. The desecration of the Holy Cross and the burning of an altar in one of the churches in Delhi reflects the deep seated hatred that the saffron forces in India have against the religious minorities, especially the Christians”, read a statement made available to the media by the Christian protestors.
Meanwhile, the comment of the BJP, Nagaland unit on Wednesday was a welcome change. It is rather a balm in this situation. The BJP Nagaland condemned the attacks on Christian institutions. It said the party ‘believes in the Constitution of India and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy and such attacks on minorities in the name of religion has no place in a secular country like India.’
This column would say that such comment of the BJP Nagaland should be encouraged by all.
