Worse things are happening under Modi's dispensation. The worst is yet to come! With Mr Modi being enthroned as the prime minister of India, the saffron brigade has been on steroids. Minority communities like Muslims, Christians, Dalits and the Tribals are the victims of 'direct action' by Hindu Rashtravadi vigilantes. The blatant attack on the Muslim community has seemingly slowed down, possibly because the Muslims are saying, 'Enough is enough'. Their political leaders stand up and speak up and show the organisational strength of the community to resist verbal or direct attacks on them.

But the Christian community wants to show itself as a peace-loving community and often sweeps under the carpet instances of attacks against them or against their sacred precincts. They are also not organised enough to show active resistance to the menace of communal virus. At the most, their leaders can make volumes of paper documents listing and delisting threats and attacks against Christians. Or, the creamy layer among them will sup with Modi like silent lambs. More than that, their organisational strength is next to zero. Politically, they are in the wilderness. Their supplications and invocations are demonstrated only when the state denies or withdraws their institutional privileges. That is when they curry favour with the ruling dispensation to mend ways or to mend fences.

Some 'Princes' appear to be fence-sitters by bargaining for price increments for their estate products. Beyond that, the Christian community, particularly the Christian leadership, is not much bothered about the fact that Christians are persecuted for their faith, Christian premises are attacked, Christian service to Dalit and Tribal communities is disrupted, prayer sanctuaries are laid waste or bombed, or pastors, catechists and teachers are jailed under false allegations, or Tribal Christians are delisted.

The vigilante mobs are on a mad rampage. You cannot take your school children to a public park for a picnic. Even as the children eat, they must pack up and get out halfway through. You are insulted by being openly told that you are converting these children. For merely asking school children why three of them were there in the same bathroom, the sister who queried was thrown into prison under pressure from Hindu vigilante groups in the Hindu rightwing-ruled state of Chhattisgarh. The Additional S.P. deputed on the spot and acted to control the violent crowd in front of the Carmel School in Ambikapur (Chhattisgarh) was served with the instant transfer, thus exposing the state's connivance and collaboration with Hindu antisocial elements. In India's north-eastern state of Tripura, Hindu right-wing groups are demanding to conduct Saraswati Puja in Christian Schools.

The infection is spreading. In a recent communication to Prime Minister Modi, Binoy Viswam, leader of CPI Parliamentary Party and Secretary (CPI Kerala), did something that the Christian leaders, who supped with Modi at the Christmas gathering, did not even think of by any stretch of their imagination. Viswam wrote: "Respected Sri Narendra Modiji,... Christians are the largest minority group in the country, with a population spread out all over the country....I urge you to take necessary action to fill the vacant position in the National Commission for Minorities as soon as possible so Christians in the country can avail the protection under the National Commission for Minorities Act 1992. In the absence of such an action, your outreach attempts to the Christian community will be construed as empty gestures with narrow political motivations, devoid of any genuine feeling for the rights of the community".

In many respects, Christians, living under the weight of their top-heavy leaders, are an ostrich-like community with heads in the sand. The leadership, for the most part, is embroiled in liturgical and ritualistic conundrums and confabulations or is sitting on the political fence to jump in when the wind is favourable or to ward off the evil of the midnight knock of the Enforcement Directorate.

As far as the Christian community is concerned, worse things are happening, thanks to the emboldened vigilante phenomenon following the Ayodhya celebration. But the worst is yet to come! Modi's double engine colleague, Home Minister Amit Shah, is reported to roar from public rostrums that when CAA and NRC are implemented under Modi's rule, they will be the right apps to delete Muslims and Christians. If Modi gets a third term, what cannot happen? He will preside over a kingdom where the delisting of all minorities will be his priority. His vigilante groups will be there to daub minority religious institutions and worship places with saffron.

The Constitution of India has been a pain in the Sangh Parivar's neck. Hence, the Constitution will have to go to oblivion. Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar and other national stalwarts who embellished India's history will be banished to vanvas. The weak-kneed stooges who collaborated with the British with apologies and connivance will adorn the Temple of Democracy. Our Big Brother will be enthroned as a nationalist dictator. He will rule with 'divine sanction', and his single-engine monorail Yatra will rewrite history with the help of his handpicked Chanakyas.

Most in the Opposition say that the forthcoming 2024 election results will help delist Modi from his race to a third term. But, as long as the opportunist's tool EVM will be wielded, opposition parties' efforts will be like chasing the wind with little windfall.