MIZORAM, India: The dominant pro-Hindu party in India received a blow when a top Christian official from a Christian-majority northeastern state resigned in protest of the continuing sectarian clashes in Manipur.
“I resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),” R. Vanramchhuanga, a prominent Presbyterian Church member and vice president of the BJP’s Mizoram state unit, told UCA News on July 14.
Vanramchhuanga resigned on July 13 due to the targeting of Christians, their churches, and institutions during the turmoil in neighbouring Manipur, delivering a strong message to the BJP leadership.
“Because of the recent outbreak of ethnic conflict in Manipur state, 357 Christian churches, pastors’ quarters, and office buildings belonging to various churches have been burned to ashes by Meitei militants,” he said.
He also expressed his displeasure with “the top leadership’s continued silence in condemning sectarian violence” against tribal Christians by the majority Hindu Meiteis.
He resigned in protest of “this act of criminal injustice to Christians and the Christian religion,” he stated.
“When I joined the BJP in 2016, many people told me that the party was anti-Christian, but I never believed it,” Vanramchhuanga said. “Now, I believe the BJP is anti-Christian, so I resigned from the party.”
Vanramchhuanga stated that he “believes the massive demolition of churches in Manipur was supported by state and federal authorities.”
He noted that when federal home minister Amit Shah visited Imphal, the state capital of Manipur, he neither blamed nor condemned the burning of church buildings.
According to Vanramchhuanga, Shah instead met with the Meiteis during his four-day visit to Manipur from May 29 to June 1.
This produced “the impression that those behind destroying churches and other Christian institutions are getting support from the party in power,” he wrote in his resignation letter.
He went on to say that Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, a BJP member, was never held accountable for the violence, which is still going on today.
The rioting in Manipur, a highland province bordering civil war-torn Myanmar, began on May 3.
The disturbance erupted when ethnic tribal tribes protested an attempt to provide special tribal status to the state’s majority Meitei people.
The unique designation would provide the Meiteis a social and economic advantage in government jobs, education, and other affirmative programmes for indigenous people.
The Kuki tribal people are predominantly Christians, while the Meiteis are mostly Hindus with a few Christians thrown in for good measure.
The BJP-ruled state of Manipur has evacuated over 50,000 people, the most of them are Christians whose homes have been stolen and burned. Many have fled to forests and other states, and over 40,000 people are being housed in 300 rescue camps.
Christians, primarily Protestants, account for 87.16 percent of Mizoram’s 1 million residents, making it one of the South Asian nation’s top three Christian-majority states.
