Christians float political party in northern Indian state

UCA News reporter

Christians protest against atrocities in New Delhi in 2019 (Photo: Bijay Kumar Minj)

Christian leaders, cutting across denominations in India's northern Punjab state, have come together to float a political party hoping to benefit from the sizeable Christian votes in a parliamentary seat.

The United Punjab Party was launched on April 3. It comes ahead of a snap poll necessitated by the death of a sitting member in the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency, bordering Pakistan.

The announcement was made by Pastor Harpreet Deol of Open Door Church, an evangelical Protestant group. He claimed the new party has the backing of around 1,000 Christian leaders of different denominations.

Jalandhar, a strong pocket of socially poor Dalit Christians, goes to polls on May 10 and results will be declared on May 13.

Critics say the new Christian political party aims to tap the captive votes of Dalit Christians.

India is a democratic country and we have the right to float a party. Hence, we appreciate the initiative taken by Christian leaders, Bishop Agnelo Rufino Gracias, apostolic administrator of Jalandhar, told UCA News on April 5.

He said it is not the first time that Indian Christians have formed a political party but they could not gather enough support to stay afloat.

Only time and circumstances will decide the fate of this new political party. We need strong backing from other political outfits who believe in secularism and fraternity, Gracias said.

Pastor Hanook Bhatti, a Punjab-based Christian leader, told UCA News that the new party was the need of the hour as we felt that our voice was going unheard and mainstream political parties took us for granted.

He cited the example of Punjab's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP--common man's party), which had promised burial land to Christians in Jalandhar, where the community doesn't have enough space to bury their dead.

But once AAP came to power in Punjab last year, they did not bother to keep the promise, Bhatti said. 

He said Christians in Punjab are often blamed for converting people from other religions. They needed a platform to voice their grievances, he added.

The new political party will serve as a pressure group when dealing with government officials and administrations, he explained.

A.C. Michael, president of the Federation of Catholic Associations of the Archdiocese of Delhi, told UCA News: Punjab has seen allegations of forceful conversions against the Christian community and the new party may provide an opportunity to come clean on the unsubstantiated accusations.

Christians in Punjab constitute 10 percent of the Sikh-majority state's 28 million population.  

In the past decades, thousands of Dalits, whose ancestors were considered untouchables, converted to Christianity to escape the caste discrimination they faced in other religions 

Last June, Giani Harpreet Singh, a Sikh head priest, demanded an end to the religious conversions to Christianity.

Christianity is being spread in Punjab on a large scale to weaken us religiously, he said. 

Indian media reported attacks on several churches in the recent past.

Nihangs, an order of armed Sikhs, also protested against religious conversion and disrupted Christian prayer gatherings last year.