“The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,” one of the group members wrote, quoting Isaiah 14:5, on the “defeat” of the BJP regime led by Modi.
In another positive development for Christian political activists, opposition candidates for Congress in the troubled Manipur state took both Parliament seats from the state’s ruling BJP. Manipur has been wracked by a bloody ethnic conflict, and there have been reports that voters were intimidated and even assaulted by the Meitei militia who were supported by the ruling BJP government of Manipur.
Since May 2023, Manipur has been simmering with a protracted violent clash between the majority Meiteis, most of whom are Hindus, and the Christian minority Kukis that has left more than 230 dead, according to the official conservative death toll. More than 50,000 Kuki Christians have been chased out of the Imphal valley along with over 10,000 Meiteis who were driven out from Kuki strongholds.
During the unrest, over 600 churches — the majority of them Kuki — as well as 247 churches attended by Meitei Christians, were destroyed. The violence is seen as an attempt to stop Meiteis from embracing the Christian faith.
During the election fight for the Inner Manipur parliamentary seat, which is dominated by the Meitei community, the Wire news portal reported that the Meiteis were “upset with the BJP, particularly with Prime Minister Modi for not even visiting the state even when it was burning for over a year.”
“We are surprised by the verdict of the people. This shows even the Meitei people are fed up with the callous response of Prime Minister Modi failing to take steps to resolve the situation,” a senior official of the Imphal Archdiocese told CNA.
But the elections have not cheered the Christians in eastern Odisha state, with the BJP winning 20 of the 21 Parliament seats from the state as well as the majority in the state Assembly for the first time.
“We do not know what is going to be in store for us,” said a senior priest of the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Archdiocese, which comprises the Kandhamal jungle district that witnessed widespread anti-Christian violence in 2008.
Over the last 15 years, Kandhamal has witnessed an amazing turnaround, as illustrated in the documentary “Good News of Kandhamal,” with many assailants embracing the Christian faith.
The Church in the Christian heartland of Kerala suffered an embarrassment with Suresh Gopi, a popular film actor and BJP candidate, winning the Thrissur Parliamentary seat — BJP’s first parliamentary victory in the state.
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