On December 25, Prime Minister Mr. Narnedra Modi invited Christian representatives for an interaction and to greet them. He lauded the community for their social work and hailed the inclusive teachings of Lord Jesus Christ. He also recalled his long association with the community leaders. A couple of days later, nearly two hundred Christians joined the BJP in Kerala. The Hindu reports, "A meeting of the BJP State leadership in Kottayam here on Monday decided to launch a 10-day-long Sneha Yathra, which seeks to win over the community by explaining its position on various issues, including the Manipur violence." At the same time, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan was on the dot when he stated, "Things have reached such a pass in Manipur that a section of people…Christian community cannot live…We have seen the state Government and Central Government maintaining silence."

As the next General elections are approaching, the RSS-BJP have reactivated their attempts to woo the Christian community. As such, various national and international reports and indices of religious freedom reflect the plight of the Christian community in India. Per Vada Na Todo Abhiyan, two persecution incidents occur daily (Don't Break Your Promise Campaign). In UP, "…100 pastors and even ordinary men and women, are in jail under charges of illegal conversions when all they were doing was celebrating birthdays or conducting Sunday prayers."

The government is also investigating Cardinal and Pastors per the memorandum cited above. As per the United Christian Forum, 302 attacks took place against Christians in the first seven months of 2022. A petition filed by Archbishop Peter Machado, National Solidarity Forum and Evangelical Fellowship of India states that the "state has failed to take immediate and necessary action against groups that have caused widespread violence and used hate speech against the Christian community, including attacks at their places of worship and disruption of prayer meetings."

For the fourth consecutive year, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) declared India a country of particular concern and asked the US Administration to make their policies accordingly.

As per Open Doors, "Since the current government came to power in May 2014, pressure on Christians has risen dramatically… Hindu extremists attack others with impunity, using extreme violence in some areas…Increasing numbers of states are also implementing anti-conversion laws, allegedly to stop Hindus being forcibly converted to other religions, but in reality, they are often used as an excuse to harass and intimidate Christians… Being a pastor is one of the riskiest vocations in the country today. Hindu extremists target them with violent attacks to sow fear in the wider Christian community."

The present plight of the Christian community is rooted in the Hindu Nationalist discourse, where Islam and Christianity are regarded as foreign religions. RSS's second Sarsanghchalak, M.S. Golwalkar, in his book Bunch of Thoughts, states that Muslims, Christians and Communists are an internal threat to the Hindu nation.

The RSS propaganda in Shakhas is conducted on these lines. With the increase in intensity of Hindu nationalist activities, the anti-Christian violence began in the Adivasi areas to start with. The propaganda was that Christian missionaries were doing conversion through force, fraud and allurement.

As such, Christianity is one of the oldest religions in India. One account says it began with St Thomas arriving on the Malabar Coast and setting up a Church in AD 52. Other accounts date it to somewhere in the 4th Century AD. Today, as per the population census, the percentage of Christians in India is 2.3% (2011). Interestingly, this is a constant drop from 1971 data, 1971- 2.60%, 1981-2.44%. 1991-2.34%, 2001- 2.30%, 1911-2.30% (Population census figures.)

The constant propaganda on these lines led to a rise in anti-Christian violence manifesting in Dangs (Gujarat, December 25 1998 to January 3, 1999). It was followed by the most ghastly burning alive of Pastor Graham Stains on the night of January 22 1999, by RSS affiliate Bajrang Dal's activist Rajendra Pal, aka Dara Singh, who is currently undergoing life imprisonment. This act was described by the then President of India, Dr. K.R. Narayanan, as belonging to the "World's inventory of black deeds". Stains was an Australian missionary working in Keonjhar, Manoharpur, Orissa. When he was sleeping in the open jeep with his two sons, Timothy and Philip, Dara Singh mobilized people to burn him. The charge was that he was doing the conversion work in the garb of work for Leprosy patients.

The Wadhwa Commission formed in the aftermath concluded that Pastor Stains was not involved in the work of conversions and that there was no increase in the population of Christians in the area where he was working. The incidents of anti-Christian violence continued in remote areas, mainly around Christmas time. The violence which flared up in Kandhamal on August 25, 2008, was the most horrific and led to the killings of over 100 Christians, many heinous acts of rape and many Churches being burnt.

The anti-Christian violence is a low-radar activity where the priests working in remote areas are apprehended when they are conducting prayer meetings in particular. The Bajrang Dal and its clones obstruct these meetings, and many of the priests are arrested and harassed.

One such act of prolonged violence is currently going on in Manipur for the last seven months. The Kukis, who are predominantly Christians, are under the hammer with double Engine Sarkar (the BJP rules both Manipur and the Center). The Prime Minister indicated that controlling this ongoing anti-Christian violence is not among his priorities in no uncertain terms. He has been travelling all over the world, but he has no time for Manipur. Social activists and some brave journalists have tried to visit the area and douse the fire, but with the Government hand in glove with the villains, though it tries to show itself apathetic, such deep cleavages cannot be repaired.

The primary aim of Prime Minister Modi's present efforts is to create optical illusions for electoral gains. In Kerala, many affluent Christians are being lured by this Hindu majoritarian politics. Indeed, some of the top Religious leaders are also coerced into associating with the present regime to save their skin from the claws of ED and IT, etc.

We need to realize the strategy being employed by Modi and the company to, on the one hand, marginalize the Christian community and, on the other, woo them for electoral benefits.