India: Religious liberty in the balance as India goes to the polls

The outcome of elections in India over the next few weeks could be key in deciding the future for India's long-suffering Christians.

The BBC predicts that the poll will be 'an exceedingly close race' between the Indian National Congress, which has been in government for the past five years, and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The size of India's electorate – about 714 million – means that the ballot is phased between April 16 and May 13.

The church's attention is focused particularly on Orissa, the epicentre of anti-Christian violence at the hands of militant Hindus last year. Violence broke out last August when a Hindu extremist leader Laxmananda Saraswati was murdered in Kandhamal district. Christians were accused of the murder – despite Maoists' claims that they were to blame.

In Orissa, the BJP has based its electoral campaign on anti-Christian sentiment arising from Saraswati's murder. Christians fear a victory for the BJP here would bring further persecution. One of the candidates in Orissa's provincial elections is Dara Singh, a Hindu extremist convicted of murdering Australian missionary Graham Staines and his sons in Orissa in 1999.

The BJP has promised to set up a 'permanent consultative mechanism' to boost interfaith dialogue between Hindus and Christians if it wins the national elections. This announcement has had a sceptical response from many Christians.

There has also been concern that Christians made homeless during last year's riots may not be allowed to vote because they have lost their ID papers.

(Sources: AsiaNews, ANS, BBC, Evangelical Fellowship of India, Jubilee Campaign USA)

• Pray for India's church as it watches and waits for the outcome of the polls.
• Pray that the Indian electorate will vote en masse for religious tolerance.