Nagaland Joint Christian Forum (NJCF) has come out strongly against the alleged intimidation and threat meted out to Christian minorities across the nation and in the Northeast of late, especially in Assam.
NJCF vice-president Rev Dr N Paphino in a statement said it was unfortunate to see that there was now no respect for each other when it came to religious practices of citizens, accusing the majority religious group of trying to force its agenda, which had become more obvious this time around.
He claimed that there was now no sense of respect for others and the barbaric designs were openly let loose to hurt and create hatred among different groups.
He questioned why the majority had become so insecure that it wanted to eliminate the rights of the minority, alleging that the Northeast had been experiencing unprecedented hate crimes and hate speeches, but the authority was silent. He said the assurance given by Assam chief minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma had gone down the drain when minority religious groups in his State were made to suffer under his regime.
Paphino called for staying alert as the threat was coming closer to home this time round, pointing out that communalism and hatred were becoming stronger. He said politics was played on religious line and force conversion was defined conveniently to harass and intimidate.
He stressed not allowing external communal force to play with emotion during this critical period of history.
“As we vouch for clean election movement, we should guard ourselves from the outside forces trying to take advantage of our situation. Those who call us corrupt are playing behind the screen. They want to break our bones so that we become spineless. They will go to any extend and later on put the blame on us,” he cautioned.
He appealed to people to guard themselves from the politics of trying to degrade their faith, stressing that politics and religion should be kept away from each other, as one dealt with governance and the other was a matter of belief and practice.
He called for not allow the politics of disintegration to divide the people and condemned RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat alleged statement “…. all people living in India are Hindus”, which he termed as communal and unacceptable to religious minorities.
He pointed out that the supremacy of one religion over the other was disrespectful and unbecoming of a religious leader, adding that this had led to the attempt to try and eliminate political, social and religious rights of minorities in the secular country.
The NJCF vice-president asserted that if communal forces were of the view that India was a Hindu nation and their agenda was to Hinduise the nation with the power of politics, they had no right to come to the region during election time.
He stressed that politics should work to unite the nation and not divide it. If a political party was emboldened by a communal force behind it to govern the nation with such an ideology, it had no right to advocate political manifestos in the guise of trying to develop the nation otherwise.
He mentioned that Nagaland was a Christian majority State adding flavour to the unity in diversity, declaring that political parties and communal forces had no right to demean matters relating to faith. He declared that Nagaland as a Christian majority State had never insulted the majority on matter of faith and hence those coming from outside must first learn to respect.
Paphino stated that the world had no place for communal forces working hard though politicians and politics. He mentioned that Nagaland might be a Christian majority State, but it was still a minority.
He however assured that NJCF would continue to stand defending the minority communities in the nation and continue to be their voice. He said it would still hold on to the ideals of a secular India, stressing faith and practice was an individual choice and could not be forced upon any citizen.
He declared that if people in the realm of power could not give protection to the minorities in the country, they were not fit to call themselves leaders.
He said if fundamental rights of the minorities were violated and threatened in every corner, threatening them to take away their right to vote, they were against humanity. If they were deaf and blind to the sufferings of the minorities and conniving with communal forces, he insisted that they should stay away from politics and allow India to flourish as a secular nation.
