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BJP aims to reap communal divide in
Kandhamal
WSN Network
 KANDHAMAL/BHUBANESWAR: In blatant display of communalism, BJP
candidate Ashok Sahu in Orissa's Kandhamal made highly inflammatory
speeches and had to be arrested after an uproar even as the election
has further vitiated the atmosphere driving most Christians away and
leaving the field open for communal elements. Kandhamal goes to
elections on April 16.
Sahu's bail was refused and he was remanded to judicial
custody. Communal issues are likely to decide the winner in this
seat as anti-Christian riots have polarised the voters. Polls to
both the Lok Sabha and the Orissa Assembly are happening
simultaneously.
The Christians, who form about 30 per cent of the 10 lakh-plus
electorate in the Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituency, have been the
worst hit in the August and September 2008 riots in the aftermath of
the killing of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati by Maoists
last year.
Of the 25,000 Christians who thronged various relief camps in
Phulbani, Baliguda and G Udaygiri Assembly constituencies seven
months ago, over 3,000 are still in five relief camps — worried over
their safety and security.
Kandhamal has been the laboratory of Sangh Parivar since the
’70s when Laxmanananda Saraswati arrived in the district, communal
polarisation did not happen in Kandhamal till riots happened first
in December 2007 and then in August 2008, the latter being bloodier
than the first. The superbly agile VHP leader with a keenness for
social activities, matched only by the Christian missionaries in the
region, held sway over the majority Kondh tribals in 1,100-odd
villages through his Sankirtan Mandalis (prayer groups).
Saraswati and the Christian missionaries occasionally
clashed, but it never came out in the open and never affected the
elections. But with the Biju Janata Dal breaking off the 11-year-old
alliance with the BJP, irked over the Kandhamal riots and thousands
of Kondh tribals arrested after the riots and the BJP making
Laxmanananda’s killing the central poll issue, the Hindu votes would
surely be consolidated in at least two of the seven Assembly
constituencies of the Lok Sabha election, thus deciding who the
winner would be.
With no issue in hand, the BJP is unashamedly playing the
Hindutva card. Its electoral campaign dwelled more on the alleged
sins of the minorities than on the district’s terrible record of
poverty and underdevelopment.
The contest in the district is triangular, with the Biju
Janata Dal (BJD) and Congress enjoying a slight edge over the BJP,
whose pockets of support are limited to those blocks where the RSS
has been active for decades. But the manner in which its campaign is
highlighting the salience of religious conflict does not augur well
for the long-term stability of Kandhamal or indeed Orissa.
In his controversial speech, Sahu blamed the Christians and
the Church for the assassination of Lakhsmananda Saraswathi and said
wherever there were insurgencies in North-East or Jharkhand or
Orissa, these were being fuelled by Christians.
15
April 2009
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