Khekiye K. Sema
For someone who does not frequent Sunday services, the Church attendance register would perhaps automatically accuse such an individual as an unworthy basket case to even remotely meddle into any subject tagged ‘religion’... and I would be the last to contest such a verdict. Nevertheless even as a concerned ‘non-service attending’ Christian, when one is having such a trying time walking the straight and the narrow of worshipping the One and Only God as it is, one dreads to envision a suffocating possibility whereby one day in the near future the Nagas by some unfortunate compelling circumstance are involuntarily sucked into the vortex of having to kneel before thousands of unrestricted population of gods of all hues, shapes and sizes that include the elephants, the snakes and the cows and God knows what else; paint one’s face with all the colours of the rainbow, like the American Red Indians on a warpath, to fulfill some vaguely defined Hindu ritualistic standards dictated by some half naked crocked millionaire god man to earn our eternal salvation... Help! Dear fellow Christians we have a “Hindutva” nightmare at our gates! In fact their vanguard RSS and BJP have already penetrated and hoisted their flag in the heartland of Naga Christian citadel.The Christian leaders at the helms, no matter which denomination they belong, must clearly perceive that in a civilised democracy everyone enjoys the liberty to choose the path one wants to follow...good or bad. That is why we already have BJP in Nagaland...Nagas with delusionary beliefs that their individual or collective presence will make a difference to soften the BJP’s National Hindutva policy against Christians. A fat belly yoga difference it is making. Who knows, with treasure hunt as their primary target we probably even have Naga zealots in the RSS cadres already in the hope of building powerful connection to achieve their financial objectives. Can the Naga BJPs tell the people what difference their presence has made on all the arrogant Hindu frontal aggression against Christians across the country?.....Church Leaders taking their respective congregation for granted therefore could spell doom for Christendom in general against the challenges that loom large before us from within and without. The one reality that must be kept in sharp focus by all the Christian Organizations at all times is that we have a BJP Government in the Centre with fanatically motivated RSS/VHP Hindutva ideologues as the dynamo that charges its survival battery. With a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha the BJP Government with a sever Hindu infected virus (HIV) has the empowerment to contaminate every secular sensibility as enshrined in the Constitution in order to execute its Hindutva agenda irrespective of the dissenting voices being raised. It has blatantly begun flexing its hyperactive Hindu muscles without any reservations with Christian and the Muslim minorities as their punching bag. The danger lies in having to fight a battle not against a visible standing army but a more surreptitious invisible force in the form of devious Government directives and regulations... ‘yoga’ being a case in reference. On this issue I full heartedly subscribe to Kaka Iralu’s conclusion that “yoga is deeply rooted in the Vedas and Upanishads of Hindu religion” reinforced by none other than VHP fanatic, president Parveen Togadia, affirming that yoga is not secular (Eastern Mirror, June 22, 2015) and that a state-level training events would be conducted under VHP programme to raise five lakh ‘health ambassadors’ meaning Hindu religious zealots, across 300 cities within three years. This is no boastful threat on the part of a fanatic...it forebodes things to come. While I still hold an opinion that there is no harm done in practicing yoga in private as an individual choice solely as an effort to maintain healthy body and mind, the moment it takes the form of a Government directive pointedly targeting sacred Christian Sunday for mass practice of it, it assumes a totally different connotation of Hindu religious overtone being superimposed over Christianity without a fraction of doubt. It would be worthwhile to consider this reality with a serious concern! It is heartening to note for a change that the NBCC, other Church Organizations and the NSF have shown appropriate sensitivity to their surroundings and have come out openly and strongly against this surreptitious introduction of yoga into our backyard. Getting accustomed to giving in on smaller challenges that come our way will lead to compromising bigger challenges in the future with possible catastrophic consequences. It must be remembered with a sense of responsibility that ‘we the people’ are the only sensible voice of opposition left in an opposition-less All Party fiasco of a Government! Nagas must firmly stand our ground and be prepared to act when called for! This is one such case. Having declared their opposition to ‘yoga’ being introduced as a standard mass regulatory practice in educational institutions or elsewhere, it is incumbent upon the Church and NSF to take this issue forward in action to its logical conclusion.
Consider other dubious methods of BJP/RSS/VHP arm twisting options that Nagaland will be susceptible to. It is pointless directing our ire against the DoSE on the yoga issue. He is but a small cog in Government machinery carrying out what he is instructed to do. The onus of responsibility and culpability rests with the Chief Minister and his “All party Cabinet colleagooses” who ought to have firmly reacted against this invasion into our religious citadel instead of silently toeing the line of the BJP Government at the Centre. The existence of Article 371-A that provide extraordinary protection to the Nagas will mean nothing much in the hands of leaders who are prepared to compromise Naga’s identity for a buck. This simple looking episode should be an eye opener for the Nagas to foresee what danger lies ahead. It depicts the Head of a State unwilling to take a stand even if the issue is detrimental to Christian values and survival because his Government is cash starved, solely dependent on BJP Government at the Centre and cannot afford to antagonise those holding the purse string. This makes Nagaland a very vulnerable soft target exposed to RSS/BJP’s sinister designs through their political and money manipulating clout. Without bias, take a look at this sequential deduction and see whether it rings true: Chief Minister needs lots and lots of money not so much for development but to keep his hungry flocks together for him to stay in power. He additionally needs lots and lots of money to buy tonnes of bouquets and Naga jackets to camouflage the begging bowels also ensuring expenditures for him and his hungry team to make weekly trips to Delhi, in turns, to seek for financial favours from one central sector or the other. Whether their begging mission to Delhi have been successful or not it has become the latest craze to proudly plaster the local papers posing with their grinning faces presenting bouquets and Naga jackets to dignitaries in the summer heat of Delhi. The greed factor has assumed such magnitudes that our leaders forget that as long as Nagaland remains a State in the Indian Union, the Government of Nagaland cannot be denied its legitimate financial dispensation by the Centre, no matter which Party is in power. Our Leaders will never admit that our basic problem lies not in the lack of fund but in our inability to honestly and transparently use the funds that we receive. Therefore, despite the overwhelming voices of dissent being expressed by the masses against the devious manner of introducing an alien practice of yoga into our Christian community that too on a Sunday, our very own Honb’le Chief Minister has opted to remain silent on the issue for obvious reason. If we are to go by the standards of a State Government going bananas over BJP General Secretary, Amit Shah’s last visit to Nagaland it is rather difficult to believe that our Chief Minister will be capable of withstanding any future Hindutva overtures of the BJP/RSS/VHP combined. Chief Minister must unequivocally let the Nagas know the stand being taken by his Opposition-less All Party Government on the unhealthy intrusion of yoga into our society. That in the least is expected from him.
The other troubling question that we should collectively address is: Are we, as members of one Christian Denomination or the other, strong enough in our Christian faith and resolve to stem the threatening tide on a long term basis in a sustained manner? One would honestly hesitate to respond in the affirmative with confidence seeing all the piled up garbage in our Christian backyard. Such being the magnitude of our Christian bastion being challenged by extraneous forces, it calls for Inter-Denominational differences being set aside and instead set up a common platform to chart out common strategies and plans of action to strengthen our common bond...Christianity...and collectively face a greater diabolic force at our gates... before we get swamped by the Hindutva nightmare.
