The BJP’s Christian outreach took an unprecedented turn on Easter Sunday this year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi drove to the Sacred Heart Cathedral in the centre of Lutyens' Delhi to attend a special Easter service arranged for him by Delhi Archbishop Anil Couto.
He lit a candle at the altar in front of the statue of resurrection, sat with his head bowed and hands folded as he listened to three hymns sung by a choir of young girls, and left in 20 minutes after planting a sapling in the grounds of the cathedral.
What makes the visit extraordinary is that it was the first church outing by a PM on a day that is sacred for the Christians. No other PM, including from the Congress, has extended this gesture to the community in the years since Independence.
BJP’s Easter Outreach Sets the Stage for the G20 Season
It’s not hard to guess the reasons for the move. One is the upcoming G20 Summit that India will host in New Delhi in September. Having pitched India as "the mother of democracy’’ for the Summit, the Modi government is determined to put its best foot forward with an image makeover to counter a popular Western perception of the BJP as 'anti-minority'.
In this context, it may be pertinent to point out that 14 of the 20 member countries of this elite international grouping are Christian-majority nations.
The second reason is Kerala with its 18 percent Christian population which can swing an electoral outcome decisively in around one-third of the seats. Buoyed by its recent performance in assembly elections in the Christian-dominated Northeastern states of Nagaland and Manipur, the BJP is now seriously eyeing Kerala where victory has long eluded it despite a strong RSS presence in the state.
With just a year left for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, it would seem Modi has decided to give a huge push to the BJP’s Christian outreach in the state with a personal intervention. Not only has he set new standards for a PM by attending an Easter service but also had 'Happy Easter' cards printed in his name and distributed to prominent members of the Christian community in Kerala and New Delhi. The cards had a photograph of Jesus in the resurrection pose with a picture of Modi beneath it. This is unique for a BJP leader by any measure.
If all these smack of tokenism and minority appeasement—charges that the BJP regularly flings at the Congress, it’s because the reality on the ground is completely at odds with the soft focus pictures of harmony the party wants to present.
Ground Realities of Indian Christians Paint a Starkly Contrasting Picture
According to a prominent spokesperson for the Christian community John Dayal, there were at least 650 incidents of violence against Christians and their churches in 2022. While the BJP-ruled states top the list of offenders, Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand where the Congress and JMM have an alliance government, are equally guilty.
Dayal says this figure could go as high as 1,200 but it is difficult to compile accurate statistics because of the lack of cooperation from the police and governments in these states.
The new year unleashed a fresh wave of violence. At the last count, more than 100 pastors were languishing in jail in Yogi Adityanath’s UP on charges ranging from forced conversion to inciting violence. In March, a pastor and his wife were dragged out from their home in Ghaziabad and arrested following a complaint by Bajrang Dal activists that they were forcibly converting Hindus.
And this month, a BJP minister in poll-bound Karnataka was caught on camera urging Hindus to "thrash’’ Christians.
Many of the incidents of violence against Christians and their churches have been listed in a long memorandum sent to President Droupadi Murmu, Modi, and other important government functionaries. The memorandum was signed by the church leaders in New Delhi.
By Ignoring Minority Demands, BJP’s Christian Votes Aspirations Will Remain Half-Baked
Even if he did not read the memorandum, Modi must surely be aware of the huge Christian protest at Jantar Mantar in February this year to demand government action and protection from violence. Significantly, the protest was led by none other than Archbishop Couto and followed by a candlelight march through the grounds of the Sacred Heart Cathedral.
PM Modi must receive daily intelligence inputs of happenings across the country, especially in the national capital. Yet, when he went to the Sacred Heart Cathedral on Easter Sunday, he made no mention of the protest. Nor did he offer sympathy or reassurance on the demands raised that day.
If Modi and the BJP are indeed serious about winning Christian votes in Kerala and the PM wants to do a convincing image revamp to impress G20 leaders when they arrive for the September Summit, surely an outreach must be buttressed by action on the ground.
The demands from Jantar Mantar in February were simple: act against the perpetrators of violence, act against those who spread hatred through speeches and statements, and protect the lives and properties of the Christian minorities in India. Unfortunately, their appeals seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
A community leader recalled that in February 2015, when Modi first met with a gathering of prominent Christians after a series of attacks on churches and a school in Delhi, he spoke out strongly against religious intolerance. "We will not allow anyone to spread hatred,’’ he had said.
Peace reigned for at least a year after that. But the attacks started again in 2017 and have only increased since then.
It’s time for Modi to break his silence, speak out again, and direct state agencies to crack down hard on hate crimes and incidents of violence, not just against Christians but all minority groups, including Muslims. That would strengthen his democratic credentials better than a 20-minute visit to a church on Easter Sunday.
(Arati R Jerath is a Delhi-based senior journalist. She tweets @AratiJ. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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