India's Christians cast their votes amid tight security

Over 3,000 Christians in Kandhamal relief camps were able to cast their votes peacefully in the first phase of polling for the parliamentary and assembly seats in Orissa which got underway last Thursday.

The elections were held amid tight security and saw a voter turnout of about 52 per cent. More than 90 per cent of the voters living in relief camps exercised their franchise, said Kandhamal SP Praveen Kumar.

He said all arrangements were made for a peaceful election: "Twenty-five teams, comprising an escort officer and a section of force each, have been constituted to transport those living in relief camps to their respective polling stations," he explained.

There were speculations of Christians being attacked by Hindu extremists in the wake of two major candidates belonging to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) jailed during the poll day. This, however, did not occur as the authorities dispatched 35 official teams who tracked 4,000 possible troublemakers. They were also made to sign bonds.

Earlier this week, Ashok Sahu, the retired IPS officer and head of Hindu Jagran Samakhya was arrested for his hate speech against Christians. Along with him, Manoj Pradhan, fielded for the G Udayagiri seat, is behind the bars for his key role in the August 2008 attacks, believed to be the worst anti-Christian violence in India's history.

Christians, meanwhile, have stated that they will not be voting for the party, which was behind the riots.

If the BJP comes back to power, the victims say they can never return to their villages and will have to consider leaving the state.

Says 60-year-old Kunti Digal of Baridisahi village, "We voted to prove we are as much a part of the country's electoral system as anybody. We had a point to establish since we have been treated as outsiders in our own land."

The Christians have also thanked the administration for making arrangements to ensure peaceful polls.

Last week, after Archbishop Raphael Cheenath demanded the postponing of polls citing a lack of documents for people to participate, but the political machinery immediately swung into action by providing duplicate voter ID cards and also said transportation would be provided to ferry the Christians to their polling stations.

On April 16, India began its five-phased polling process to elect members to the 545-seat national parliament. About 714 million people will be eligible to cast ballots in the country.