Christians decline India's ruling party's offer to clean church premises

Bijay Kumar Minj

Members of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council pose for a photo session as part of the Church visitation program in 2019. (Photo:nbcc-nagaland.org)

The pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, which runs the government in the Christian-majority Nagaland state, has offered to clean church premises to mark the death anniversary of a Hindu leader, but Christians have declined the offer.

The BJP offered to clean church compounds on May 11 as a build-up to mark the 70th death anniversary of Syama Prasad Mookerjee. A prominent Hindu leader from the colonial-era Bengal region, Mookerjee died on June 23, 1953.

We feel obligated to politely decline the kind gesture offered to clean church compounds on May 11, said the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC), the largest denomination in Nagaland where Christians account for 87.93 percent of the state's 1.97 million people.

We may as well direct your good office to pursue another avenue of service, the council said in a statement on April 30.

The council alleged that Christians have been facing unprecedented violence after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in New Delhi, leading the BJP victory in the 2014 national elections.

The council urged the party to exercise caution while issuing such directions.

The BJP is sharing power in Nagaland.

Mookerjee was one of the founders of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a precursor of the BJP, and a minister in the interim government from 1947 to 1950.   

Its state chief, Benjamin Yepthomi, had directed party members to clean church compounds to mark Mookerjee's death anniversary. 

The influential Baptist council warned against political parties championing religious subjects.

The Nagaland Christian Revival Church Council (NCRCC) also issued a statement on May 1 urging parties to refrain from politicizing sacred spaces for partisan gains.

Let us uphold the values of tolerance, respect, and religious freedom that are fundamental to our society, it stated.

India's seven-phased polls to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha (lower house) started on April 19 and will conclude on June 1. The results will be declared on June 4. Nagaland, one of India's eight northeastern states, sends one lawmaker to the Lok Sabha.

In neighboring Manipur, the sectarian strife involving tribal Christians has been going on since May 3 last year. The death toll in the communal conflict has reached 220 and more than 500 places of worship have been set on fire.

Earlier Reverend N. Paphino, president of the NCRCC, asked the pro-Hindu party to prioritize protecting persecuted Christians across India instead of focusing on Nagaland for the sake of a campaign.

If they genuinely care for Christians, they should visit churches outside Nagaland, where they have been set on fire, he noted.

Simply cleaning Nagaland's church compounds would be hypocritical, Paphino stated.