INDIA Church Issues Guidelines For Jharkhand State's First Election

Posted: 15th January 2005

RANCHI, India (UCAN) : As an election nears in Jharkhand state, Church people have asked Christians to ensure that their name is on voting lists and that they vote for a candidate "without fear and favor."

The first polls for a state legislative assembly since Jharkhand was created in 2000 are scheduled in three phases on Feb. 3, 15 and 23. They will determine the future of the ruling coalition government led by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian people's party). It was formed by elected representatives of the districts split from Bihar state to form Jharkhand.

As preparations and political campaigns proceed, the ecumenical All Churches Committee has issued voter guidelines that call on Christians to vote for the "right party and the right candidate, without fear and favor."
The guidelines were issued in January and distributed through parishes. They do not mention any party or candidate, but ask Christians to vote according to their conscience for a party that would remain committed to the welfare of the state and its people.

Representatives of the Catholic and various Protestant Churches in Jharkhand drafted the joint circular as a way of prompting voters to exercise their franchise and to cast their votes in a timely manner.

"Make sure that your names appear on the voting list," urges the circular, signed by Reverend James Kandulna, the newly elected president of the ecumenical committee. The Church of North India pastor works in Ranchi, the state capital, 1,160 kilometers east of New Delhi.

Father C.R. Prabhu, former president of the committee, said that prior to the national parliamentary election held April-May 2004, the group also issued guidelines. "The Church had then taken a stand not to vote for sectarian parties, and we saw the result -- out of 14 parliamentary seats the alliance of the secular parties got 13 seats," the Catholic priest recalled. That election ended six years of rule by a BJP-led federal coalition government.
He also recalled that the BJP criticized the Christian body for using the phrase "communal party." The BJP claimed it was the inferred target. The phrase has been removed, Father Prabhu said.

"Actually these guidelines are to make Christian communities aware of using their right to vote. The ecumenical committee took the responsibility of releasing guidelines because we want to unite Christian voters of different denominations," he added.
In his opinion the Church can have a positive, impartial influence on politics in the state. "The Church is not for the party politics, but it suggests Christians and like-minded people to vote persons and parties, which can do best for the State. The committee is doing the same job," he explained.

Father Prabhu said that in the general election last year, several priests, seminarians and nuns failed to cast votes. They arrived at polling stations only to find that someone had already voted using their name.
"On voting day Christians go to church to pray for a fair and peaceful election. They are thus delayed in reaching polling booths. And when they arrive, they find their vote has already been cast by someone else," he said.

Additionally, many Christian names were absent from voter lists in the federal election, and Christian leaders alleged this was deliberate. The committee now wants people to ensure their names are listed.
Tribal leaders claim that at least 60 percent of the state's 26.9 million people are tribal. But members of tribal communities currently occupy only 27 of the 81-seats in the state assembly.

According to government statistics, only 27.6 percent of Jharkhand's people are tribal, but tribal leaders say the census records are "manipulated" for the advantage of "outsiders" who want to control them. Tribal advancement was the purported reason for the state's creation.

Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo of Ranchi told UCA News the Church as a teacher has the "obligation to teach people their rights and duties." But he insisted that "politically the Church is indifferent."

The Church in Jharkhand "is a tribal Church and always thinks for the tribal cause. It advises people to vote for persons whom they know to be genuine, who have concern for them," he said.

Christians in the state number just over 1 million, or about 4 percent of the population. Almost all of them are tribal people.

The cardinal said the election would be the "first opportunity" for the state's people to elect their own people as their leaders. "We want to see the people show their unity and solidarity and elect parties and persons who have concern for state and its people," he said.

He claimed that sectarianism is "no more an issue" in the coming poll, because people in the state "discarded sectarian parties in the parliamentary election last year." People, he said, "now understand very well how much damage communalism has done to the country."

Bishop Hemant Hansda, moderator of Gossner Evangelical Church, told UCA News people generally assume Christians would not vote for the BJP. But he maintains that "if BJP gives good candidates, Christians can support them."

However, the "BJP should not blame the Church if it loses in the state election too, because people are not very happy with its rule in the state," the prelate said.

Bishop Zechariah James Terom, moderator of the Church of North India, told UCA News the "first assembly election would be interesting." He said most candidates now come from the state itself and people know them. "Let them choose the best," he said.
Some Protestant Churches use the term "moderator" for the highest-ranking official in the their administrative structure.

Article Source: UCAN