Says campaign will not be used to oppose any particular politician or party
Chizokho Vero
Kohima | May 3
Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) General Secretary, Rev Dr Zelhou Keyho today said that clean election movement is an apolitical campaign.
“NBCC as a church body is neither a political party nor is influenced by any political agenda within or without. The movement is not against or for any political party,” he said at the state level seminar on Clean Election here. It is also not against politicians, not to pull them down or to raise them up, he said, adding that the movement is aimed at doing at “what is right and what is meant to be.”
It is a movement against the system that has gone weary, Keyho stated. The Church, he added, will not point fingers to any individual or party but will educate/speak against the corrupt system of election in our state and appealed to the conscience of the public to use their “God given birthright without monetary or any other means of influence to overrule God given wisdom and conscience to distinguish what is right and what is wrong.”
The NBCC General Secretary also stated that the Church, being a religious institution, must remain that way without influence or setting any political agenda, or be influenced by the political agenda of any political party.
“Clean election campaign should not make us a mute angel to accept whatever comes our way namely, political ideologies with vested interest to entice us to compromise our Christian faith and beliefs. This may be construed as a political statement of the NBCC but we must underline that the church must always stand against any element that seeks to infringe on our faith with religious ideologies in the name of politics or political party,” he said.
“To this we will always be on guard and be vocal to speak against such design and this should not be construed as going against the CEC code of conduct,” he added. He continued that Clean Election Campaign is not a movement that came into being with any instigation from without but is a movement that originated from within.
“NBCC is clear that she has taken up herself CEC as her spiritual responsibility to be prophetic and stand against any form of evil and corrupt practices so that holiness is not only talk in the church but lived in the public square in spirit and in deeds. It is a holy discontent movement, a movement that says something is not right with us as a Christian majority society like ours. That, cleaning any system that is corrupt is the responsibility of the believing community based on our faith, the teaching of the Bible that has taught us to distinguish what is right and what is wrong,” he said.
Keyho also placed before the House to initiate a disciplinary committee who will biblically, theologically, an ethnically empower the church to execute action that is suitable to those who violate the CEC “code of conduct” initiated by NBCC.
He also informed that the Clean Election Campaign shall not be used to oppose any particular politician.
“The church cannot define who should and who should not contest in election,” he said, adding that the clean election campaign is not a license for a community/village to select a particular candidate over the other. Rather, it is to allow individuals to vote freely based on his/her conscience without any influence from anybody, be it politician /village authority and any other.
Calling for the Clean Election Campaign to become a people/mass movement, Keyho also proposed to the House that it write to the Election Commission of the state to judiciously work hard on cleansing the electoral roll in Nagaland.
NBCC President, Rev. Dr. Mar Atsongchanger, who is Convenor of theClean Election Campaign stressed on the need to come us a group from different disciplines and move in one direction, which he said will give momentum in the approach of clean election in the state.
He called upon each and every individual to dive deeper in the Clean Election Campaign.
