Bad Politics and Religious Bigotry – Rev. Dr. Zelhou Keyho, General Secretary, NBCC

In a country where Christians are persecuted and accused of illegal conversion and slabbed with an anti-conversion bill, where churches and her institutions are demolished, comes a politician with the political party slogan to play the religious card. Why has he/they not stood for the minorities when innocents are harassed and abused without any protection from the authorities?

Your silence in the parliament and the position you occupy to defend and safeguard the minorities has caused much harm. I am sure you are aware that big India is listed as the “10th most dangerous country to live in for Christians”? It has become so because you chose to remain silent to be the voice of the oppressed. Your religious card holds no water and therefore, you must return and do your homework to find out the spots where the minorities are hurting and are in pain.

This is an election campaign and not a spiritual-religious campaign. The “Hallelujah” and “Praise the Lord” are worship words. These worship-spiritual words are not to be equated with Bharat mata ji. Election campaign is not a worship service. Using the Hallelujah and Praise the Lord in the political platform is nothing but an insult and a ploy to divide the Christians majority society.

If it has come out from your heart It should make you bold enough to stand for the sufferings of the minorities in the country. However, your silence and bad politics has caused the Christians and the church to suffer from harassment, abuse and persecution at the hands of the majority. To say the least, the repeated shouts in your political campaign is blasphemy. It simply amounts to religious bigotry.

You are not given a religious platform but a political platform. Therefore, a line should be drawn and the platform should not be used to hurt the sentiments of the Christians in this part of the country you are touring. The hurt caused by your blatant use of Christian liturgical phrase calls for a deeper homework to find out under which political party and the regime the secular India is going through social upheaval. You cannot use your political platform to divide the people in this distant land.

A political party that is backed by religious fanatics seeking to eliminate the religious minorities in the country should not try to please people with bad politics. Our politicians are also to be blamed as well because you have not oriented your star with the religious-faith ethos of your people. Anyone can come to campaign for you but there should be some civic sense of respect for others. You cannot play with the sentiments of others for your political mileage. It only amounts to what the Apostle Paul said “….they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain (1 Timothy 6:4-5).

Today is a day of prayer and therefore, may we all humble ourselves before the Almighty God, the creator of heavens and the earth. Let us seek forgiveness in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, the savior of this world. May God grant us the wisdom to discern right from wrong, what is honorable and what is abominable in the sight of God, Almighty.