Image Of Christian State Shamed: Nagaland Congress Chief’s Remarks Over Election Of State BJP Mahila Morcha Chief To Rajya Sabha

Nagaland got its first woman Rajya Sabha MP when the state BJP Mahila Morcha chief, S Phangnon Konyak, was elected unopposed to the Upper House earlier this week.

Konyak is the second lady parliamentarian from Nagaland, the first being Rano M Shaiza who was elected to the Lok Sabha from the state in 1977. Nagaland has not had a single woman MLA since it got statehood in 1963.

The election of Konyak was thus applauded by women’s groups and all right-thinking citizens across the country, and more so because she was the unanimous choice of all the 60 MLAs--all men--in the state Assembly.

But Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) chief Kewekhape Therie deplored the election of a BJP functionary to the Rajya Sabha. According to this report in the Nagaland Page, a popular media outlet, Therie said that the 60 legislators who elected Konyak “shamed” Christian votes and “destroyed the image of every Christian and the Christian state”.

Many Nagas, including senior politicians and civil society leaders, nonchalantly refer to the state as a ‘Christian state’ since an overwhelming majority of Nagas are Christians. Banners and hoardings welcoming visitors to ‘Nagaland--the Land Of Christ’ can be seen at many places in Dimapur, the entry point to the hill state, and Kohima (the state capital).

Therie said that the 60 MLAs who voted for the BJP Rajya Sabha nominee (in reality, they did not vote since there was no other candidate) had “converted Nagaland into a Hindutva state”. What he perhaps meant was ‘Hindu state’. Konyak, like almost all other Nagas, is a practising Christian, but that detail was of no significance to the state Congress chief.

Therie contended that the MLAs, who were elected by Christian voters, failed their electorate and shamed them by voting for a BJP nominee. “In the given situation, the people’s government (formed) with Christian votes has shamed and destroyed the image of every Christian and that of the Christian state. Today, according to their decisions, all the 60 MLAs did not hesitate to vote for the BJP thus they have converted Nagaland into a Hindutva state govt (sic),” Therie was quoted as stating in a press release signed by him.

Therie also lamented the rejection of the Congress by the Nagas. His party, which ruled the state for many decades, does not have a single MLA in the 60-member state Assembly. The release that he issued said: “The voice of the Congress was ignored time and again. The voices of Christians were crashed (sic). We cannot, and nor can you, fight alone. Only when we like-minded men and women join hands, we will be able to raise our heads before the Christian world…”

The state Congress chief seemed to cast Congress as a ‘Christian party’ that will be able to protect the interests of Christians. No Naga Congress leader, or any Congress leader outside the state, has spoken out against Therie’s remarks and distanced themselves and the party from Therie.