Justice has shined over the peoples in India,” a Christian leader said after the stunning electoral defeat of the Hindu nationalist coalition that won power in 1998.
“Praise God almighty for His mercy shown on us and prayer answered,” said the leader, who asked not to be identified in Baptist Press because persecution in the region where he lives has been heavy and could flare up again.
“The parties believing in communal harmony and secularism have attained a majority to form a government,” the leader continued. “[The Indian National Congress], under Sonia Gandhi, has done the magic by getting much more seats [in parliament] than predicted by exit polls,” ousting the coalition led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The leader reported that the Congress Party and its allies “have decided … to give Sonia [Gandhi] a chance to lead the government and run the country” of 1 billion people, more than 80 percent of whom are Hindus.
“Christians, Muslims and the poor have suffered” under BJP rule, the leader said, “and we lost lives, property, the right to worship and to proclaim the gospel. Now is the time to praise our Savior and proclaim the Good News.”
The leader noted that Indian Christians must not become complacent.
“We should not be overwhelmed on this achievement,” he said. “Remember God used Cyrus to deliver the [Israelites] into exile. God has used the [BJP] communal forces to remind us that we were running away from Him. [Some church] leaders did not care for biblical truth and tried to be servants in establishing His Kingdom and failed. We have tasted the truth and harsh realities for misleading people from God’s will to human will. It is a time of repentances and remembering God mercy. It is time to give thanks for deliverance.”
India’s 14th general elections — the world’s largest electoral process — began on April 20 and ended May 10, with the early returns so strong against the BJP-led coalition that Vajpayee resigned May 13.
Hindu militants’ persecution of Christians and Muslims in India, however, apparently was a secondary issue in the voting. The New York Times, in a front-page analysis May 14, noted, “Though the economy is growing rapidly, for struggling farmers and the legions of unemployed, the [BJP-led] coalition’s message that an ascendant India was banishing poverty was a mockery.”
The paper called the BJP/Hindu nationalist defeat nevertheless “a shocking upset.”
Joseph D’Souza, president of the All India Christian Council, said in a statement carried by ASSIST news service, “In a surprise spontaneous move of public anger, the masses, the downtrodden, the poor, the Dalits [untouchables] and even the urban unemployed all joined together to throw out the BJP-led alliance.”
The Congress Party-led coalition won 212 seats, with observers predicting it will be able to form a parliamentary majority by pulling in various other parties; the BJP-led coalition won 180 seats. (BP)
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