KOHIMA: Appeasement of the majority Christian population in the states of Meghalaya and Nagaland has been on the agenda of both the major national parties participating in the elections which will take place on Monday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which usually blames the Indian National Congress for alleged appeasement policies towards the Muslim populations across the country, has come to face similar allegations in Northeast India. Multiple political parties have called out the BJP for their attempt at appeasement of the Christian majority in both states. It is important to note that Nagaland has about 85% Christians while 75 % of the people from Meghalaya follow the same religion.
Multiple leaders of the Indian National Congress including national president Malikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, Mukul Wasnik and Ajoy Kumar took part in several election rallies of the state in the last few days.
While addressing an election rally in Shillong a few days back, Rahul Gandhi mentioned that his party aims to protect the Christian people of the entire region. On the other hand, Mallikarjun Kharge alleged attacks on the community being carried out over the past decade in different parts of the country. He had also taken note of the work of the Christian community towards the development of the educational sector.
The national spokesperson for the Bhartiya Janata Party, Nalin Kohli called it an appeasement policy by the members of the Indian National Congress these comments are a deliberate attempt to malign the name of the party. “The Congress party has no presence on the ground in Nagaland and that is why its leaders are deliberately adopting an agenda of disinformation and abuse against the BJP and its leadership.” He added, “ they are unable to counter the BJP’s positive agenda of development as implemented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government at the Centre and our coalition government led by Neiphiu Rio in the state of Nagaland.
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