Dr Asangba Tzüdir
The BJP is being seen as a possible threat to the very foundation of Christianity if it comes to power in the next Nagaland General Assembly election. It has created a fear psychosis which is largely because of their politics of counter narratives in their quest to strengthen its base. Their counter-narrative politicking has been surreptitiously applied through their application of ‘imagery’ which is also supplemented by the Modi wave that finds hard to be discounted even without analysing the success and failure of his form of governance. Demonetisation and Aadhaar are couple of pointers shrouded within the veil of ‘achhe din’ employed as a tool to control and govern over the people of India.
Christmas is Good Governance Day and Good Friday is now Digital India Day. Closer home, certain inauguration has been done with the performance of Hindu rituals. Such kind of ‘imaging’ has created so much of trepidation. On another higher plane of imaging, the BJP has constructed a counter-narrative to Christianity by glorifying Rani Gaidinliu through the construction of a memorial museum-cum-library in the state capital Kohima. It was the late Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru that bestowed on her the title ‘Rani.’ It is said that she took an anti-Naga stand in the Naga self-determination movement, and also resisted the Naga conversion to Christianity and defended Heraka, a religious reform movement rooted in ancestral practice. The Sangh Parivar now claims that Heraka is part of the larger Hindu family bickering that certain practices of the Heraka are rooted in Hinduism. Such appropriation creates a force that can dismantle the dominant image of Nagaland as a Christian State through the construction of a counter-narrative premised on Hindutva ideology. Such glorification and imaging of a figure as Gaidinliu also creates a communal polarisation among the Nagas.
Currently, the hullabaloo created by the BJP bandwagon is on the issue of cow as a hindu god and therefore ‘protecting’ the ‘sacrednes’ of cow. It has taken both heightened, if not violent as well as comical overtones. In an attempt of defence, the state BJP President has categorically stated that the “BJP is not a religious Party and neither is it against any religion.” The claim of the BJP that it is not against any religion only undermines their defence as it has seriously hurt the sentiments of the Christian Community in the state for which proofs tells a different story.
Within their politics of counter-narrative imaging, the larger question of whether the BJP poses a threat to Christians should serve as a self-reflective question for the Christian Community in Nagaland. Looking at the state of affairs, the general status of ‘Christianity’ and ‘Christianism’ has reached such a state that ‘Christians’ themselves have become a threat to the image, moral foundation, principles and the religiosity of Christianity. It is time for the Christians to sincerely address the identity that makes one a Christian and stand true to their faith and beliefs and be able to defend Christianity. As a firm Christian, why should there be any fear of threats? If the Christian Community in the state is in fear of BJP, then one can only assume that the status and function of Christianity is such that it cannot defend Christianity and therefore the need to ‘find’ themselves. Forget about the BJP threat, for a time will come when Christian persecution of the highest order will test the faith of Christians.
For now, corruption is the greatest enemy of the state rather than the seeming threats posed by BJP because corruption in all its forms and manifestations is a ‘willing’ creation of and by the people.
(Dr. Asangba Tzüdir contributes a weekly guest editorial to The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
