India's election commission officials along with police frisk vehicles of commuters at a highway checkpost in Bengaluru on March 30, after it announced May 10 as the date for Karnataka state legislative assembly elections. (Photo: AFP)
Christians in the poll-bound southern Indian state of Karnataka are looking to usher in change as they say they have been left despondent living under ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“The BJP has alienated Christians with its discriminatory policies and open hatred towards us,” T Vellankanni Paul Raj, a Catholic leader based in the state capital Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), told UCA News on April 20.
Christians form 1.87 percent of Karnataka’s 61 million people and the community has faced increasing harassment for years. But attacks against Christians saw a notable surge since the BJP assumed power by unseating a Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government in July 2019.
A state anti-conversion law that came into effect in May 2022 led to a further uptick in violence against Christians and their institutions like schools and hospitals, he said.
“We never indulge in any illegal or violent activity. Rather we work for nation-building. But still, the BJP government targeted us by enacting a stringent anti-conversion law ignoring our pleas against it,” Raj said.
Discontent among Christians was aggravated further when Munirathna Naidu, the state minister for horticulture, at a public meeting in March called on supporters to beat Christians for converting people and promised to protect the culprits from the law.
The minister repeated the call in a television interview on March 31.
Christian leaders accuse the BJP government of not restraining or taking any action against its ministers and members of Hindu nationalist mobs involved in attacking them.
The Karnataka police registered a case against Naidu on April 6 only after an Election Commission official took cognizance and filed a complaint against him for promoting hate and enmity among people.
“The utterance of the minister is just continuation of the hate campaign the ruling party has been running against us,” according to J K Kantharaj, public relations officer of the Archdiocese of Bangalore.
Kantharaj said Christians in the state feel helpless and “enough damage” has already been done to them.
“We have been facing innumerable attacks and have been wounded many times for no fault of ours. Still, they are not satisfied and a minister is openly asking his supporters to beat us,” he added.
Pastor Harry Pereira of Faith Ministries based in Bengaluru said the targeting of Christians by right-wing state politicians has become the norm with the police looking the other way.
“Since nobody in the authority listens to us we can only pray to God for wisdom to those unleashing violence against us,” he said.
Christian leaders like Raj though felt the state assembly election was an opportunity for the minority communities to assert their democratic rights.
“Every vote counts in an election. Even one vote can decide the fate of a candidate,” he said.
Raj further said that if Christians and other minority communities, especially Muslims who make up close to 13 percent of the electorate, exercise their franchise judiciously it can help bring a change in government.
Like Christians, Muslims are also angry with the BJP following its decision to ban entry of Muslim girls with headscarves in educational institutions and the scrapping of a four percent quota in education and jobs for Muslims and allocating it to Hindu communities.
G Jayakumar, a senior trade union leader with the Kolar Gold Fields in Kolar district, said the BJP has hurt Christians and Muslims.
“It is quite unlikely that any Christian this time will vote for the BJP in the provincial elections,” Jayakumar, who is a Catholic, said.
He said this was because the BJP government failed to communicate its policies with Christians.
The anti-conversion law did not specifically target Christians, according to Jayakumar.
“If anyone wants to convert he/she should approach the authority and declare the intent to change religion and no one will cause trouble. Is it not a good way to convert,” he said.
He said the problem was Christians misunderstood this and blamed the BJP, which failed to create awareness among the community about the good things it had done for Karnataka.
The BJP faces a tough challenge from its old electoral rivals, Congress and Janata Dal (Secular).
The casting of votes to elect 224 lawmakers is scheduled on May 10 and counting will be held on May 13.
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