Orissa's Christian voters face intimidation

There have been reports that voters in Orissa State in India have been subjected to intimidation and have been forced to vote for the Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Despite encouraging reports of high turnout among Christians in the election, AsiaNews reports that Christians in the village of Gujapanga, northern Kandmahal, were told to “Mark the lotus!” - the symbol of the BJP. BJP supporters were also reported to have watched voters in order to intimidate them.

Sajan George, Chairman of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), said similar reports had come from many villages in the area.

He said, “Extremists standing outside polling stations told Christians to vote for the ‘lotus’ if they wanted to avoid threats to their life … These elections cannot be said to have been peaceful and calm.”

Fr Ajay Singh, leader of the social organisation Jan Vikas in the Diocese of Bubhaneswar, said, “I left Gajapati District early morning for Kandhamal. Along the road trees had been uprooted to block the road. No one was around. When I got to the polling station in my village I found out that I was the first voter to show up. Two hours after it had opened no one had come to cast a ballot. Only later, when villagers heard that someone had actually gone to vote, did a few others come out to vote.”

Fr Singh said he then went to visit other villages in the district, “In the villages of Kattingia and Lingagada, anyone who dared to vote got threats. In Nulungia where a tribal Christian was killed a few months ago, people told me that at least 40 Christians (who fled last year’s violence) did not vote for fear of being beaten.

“All you have to do is visit Phirigada, Gunjibadi, Badabanga, Dodingia, Raikola, Chanchedi. In the area near the market at G Udayagiri 43 families (who abandoned their homes) are living in pitiful conditions, but do not dare go home.”

Many thousands of Christians are also living in camps in the states of Maharastra and Gujarat.

Father Singh spoke of the situation in the village of Betticola, where Hindu extremists are trying to build a temple on the ruins of a church that was destroyed in last year’s violence.

He said, “Not one of the 38 families from the village is living in its own home.”

“Not one of the seven Christians who went to vote was allowed to cast a ballot because they did not have the right papers,” he said. “Their explanations were of no avail even when they told election officials that their identity papers and certificates were lost to fire during the violence.”