Modi’s bonhomie with Israeli PM Netanyahu could help BJP in Mizoram
Aizawl/Lungeli, Nov 9, 2018 : A prominent Christian leader and a former Minister in Mizoram, Rev H Lalruata is now a BJP candidate from Lunglei East and has given ‘political legitimacy’ to the saffron party – known for its proximity to the pro-Hindu group RSS and at times alleged to be 'anti-Christian'.
Of all factors, he suggests Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pro-Israeli tilt is one factor that had led him to the BJP fold.
"I joined the BJP through online," Rev Lalruata said adding he was impressed by PM Modi's development plank and especially by his "close friendship with the US and Israel and a strong bond with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu".
Tracking Mizoram politics with friend Ruata
The former Pentecostal Pastor is not alone with his enthusiasm about Modi's pro-United States and pro-Israeli foreign policy.
"We believe Prime Minister Modi is doing a good job by improving ties with Israel. It is good for Christians and Mizo-Jews like me," said 35-year-old Mary Winchester Zoluti.
BJP leader H. Lalruata and others say said ethnic Mizo people were also "happy" to see PM Modi's government moving away from the foreign policy of Congress governments that was more closer to communists Russia and the erstwhile Soviet Union.
"Earlier, the governments led by Congress and other parties had distanced India from the U.S and Israel. But, Mr Modi is improving India-Israel relations. This bodes well for Christians," says another Mizo youth R Z Thangzuala, 28.
A substantial number of Mizo-Jews claim to be 'Bnei Menashe (sons of Menasseh)' or descendants of a lost tribe of Israel.
This section of Mizo people who follow Judaism seem to endorse H Lalruata's support for the BJP based on PM Modi's friendship with his Israeli counterpart Netanyahu.
Locals here recall with much fondness that in July 2017, Mr Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel, 25 years after bilateral ties between India and Israel were established in 1992.
Many Mizo Christians do agree it was due to Government's pro-Palestine stance for decades that Indian Christians could not go to Israel, even with diplomatic passports.
“I go to Synagogue almost daily,” says Mary Winchester Zoluti and maintains the emergence of BJP’s neo-Israel friendly politics would augur well for someone like her.
There are few more ‘Mizo-Jewish’ like her who seem to endorse the Modi-Netanyahu friendship.
Mary Zoluti
However, a 55-year-old native entrepreneur – on the condition of anonymity – said “It will not be proper to link some politician or a Christian leader joining BJP with the emotive Mizo-Jewish links. It is more about faith while politics is all about power game”.
Local sources say there are two Synagogues in Mizoram-capital Aizawl itself and there are also some in smaller townships and hamlets like Verante, Kolasib, Sialhok, Bhairavi, Lunglei and Kolkul.
“Initially, it was a theory. When we said we believe in being mythical ‘Lost Tribe’ of Israel, people laughed around. But this theory was given a sort of authenticity in April 2005 when the Sephardi Chief Rabbinate of Israel, Shlomo Amar, ‘recognized’ us as the descendents of the ancient Israelites or Bnei Menashe," said one of them.
“On face value, all are same and there is no discrimination. But we do face discrimination in terms of political legitimacy and even marriage,” says another woman in Lunglei.
A few Mizo-Jewish, one interacted declined to share details of their personal life with merely adding that in many cases ‘marriages have been broken’ and ironically – but not surprisingly – in most cases women are victimized more.
But the community is also getting organised in Mizoram slowly and locals have set up even the Jerusalem Market in small hubs such as Mualthan North in South-Central part of Mizoram.
Ms Zoluti avers how much of BJP’s politics in Mizoram would be helped by the Mizo-Jewish remains to be seen.
However, she is firm about one thing: “We are proud of the socio-religious culture....going to Synagogue and so on; and will definitely to preserve the same”.
In the past, Naga leaders like Thomas Ngullie, a former Minister in the Christian-dominated state, had lauded Prime Minister July 4-6 (2017) visit to Israel.
Another Naga leader and a former Rajya Sabha MP Khyamo Lotha appreciated PM Modi acknowledging Jerusalem as a place of Christian pilgrimage.
The veteran politician has said he was the ‘first’ to stress the need for improved Indo-Israel relations as far back as 1991 – when Congress leader P V Narasimha Rao was the country’s Prime Minister.
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Interview with veteran Naga politician S C Jamir in 1994
Jamir had his own style and rhetoric, sometime they appeared weird and perhaps only the best way by his longtime political rival and a very close friend, Late Vamuzo.
In this interview, Jamir says - "In an insurgency area like Nagaland or the entire north east, one cannot rule out ambushes. killings. extortion and naturally intimidation. Mere statistics do not speak anything......Our problem here needs more of humane touch".
Can Sikh corridor build India-Pakistan relations?
Even though religion has been a diplomatic tool for centuries, peace talks between India and Pakistan remains a long way off
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Everything that occurs now has some reference to the past, prejudice and politics. Despite having a negative connotation of being the opium of the people, religion has been a diplomatic tool in South Asia since the beginning of political history in the region.
In the modern history of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh emerged largely because of considerations of religion. First, Muslims decided to part ways to form Pakistan by carving out areas where Muslims dominated. However, Islam as a unifying factor was found wanting when East Pakistan ceded and emerged as Bangladesh.
Hinduism and Islam continue to play vital roles in guiding the emotions of the masses and the policies of the governments of India and Pakistan, now nuclear-wielding archrivals. Their arms race and political chest thumping continue to create tension and remain a major reason for the abysmal poverty of millions of their people.
Religion again, this time Sikhism, gained prominence in relations between India and Pakistan when the countries agreed to build a visa-free corridor for Sikhs from India to visit their pilgrim center in Pakistan.
On Nov. 28, Pakistan's iconic cricketer-turned-politician and prime minister, Imran Khan, laid the foundation stone for a four-kilometer corridor connecting Indian Sikhs with their holy place Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur village, where Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak died in 1539.
The corridor connects Kartarpur with Dera Baba Nanak, a Sikh holy city in India's Gurdaspur district, helping Sikhs travel between these holy places without restrictions.
Indian Federal Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who attended the Kartarpur function, brought a handful of clay from the place where Guru Nanak spent the latter years of his life.
Religious sentiments apart, a bigger question remains: Will this help peace between India and Pakistan?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his pro-Hindu party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are viewed warily in Pakistan because of their hard-line Hindu nationalist position. It is generally believed that Pakistan's military was not keen on previous efforts by civilian leaders like Nawaz Sharif to improve ties with India.
However, at the Kartarpur function, Pakistan premier Khan sought to claim that even the army is on the same page as him regarding friendly ties with India. But that claim is easier to say than to prove. There is much skepticism in India too.
"In 1999, the then BJP prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee travelled to Lahore in Pakistan by bus to try to achieve greater peace, but Pakistan's army staged the Kargil conflict when over 1,000 soldiers from the two countries died. That actually revived the rivalry more strongly," said BJP leader Jadgdambika Pal.
BJP leaders are unsure if the corridor will allow Sikhs living in Pakistan to travel to their holy places in India.
Indian and Pakistan hardly ever grant visas to each other's citizens, accusing each other of supporting terrorism and subversive activities in their territories.
BJP sources in Delhi say India does not yet see the Kartarpur Corridor development as a "diplomatic turnaround episode" in India-Pakistan relations. They want Pakistan to stop supporting terrorists who act against India.
The BJP's line on Kartarpur is clear. "This is a sociopolitical and religious issue. We do not see it as any diplomatic breakthrough," a BJP leader said. "By deputing Sikh ministers for the ceremony, the government of India has kept it informal and religious, and thus Islamabad's efforts to steal any diplomatic limelight have been exposed."
For its part, Islamabad has consistently denied housing terrorists. But India insists the insurgency in Muslim-dominated Kashmir has support from Pakistan. India, under the present dispensation, wants Pakistan to stop supporting terrorists before any peace talks can start.
Since 1947, when India and Pakistan were born out of British India, Kashmir has been contentious. Pakistan claimed it because of its Muslim population, but its then Hindu king joined the Indian union. The countries have had three wars over Kashmir and now administer parts of it. Insurgents want to free the region from India to join Pakistan or make it a free Islamic state.
Khan's government wants to revive peace talks with India on its own terms on the vexed Kashmir issue. At Kartarpur Khan said Kashmir was the only issue between India and Pakistan. "The human race has reached the moon. Tell me what is the issue that human beings cannot solve. Can't India and Pakistan resolve one issue [Kashmir]?" Khan asked.
This predictably left the Indian side anguished and the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi wasted no time in calling Khan's statement "unwarranted."
"It is deeply regrettable that the prime minister of Pakistan chose to politicize the pious occasion meant to realise the long-pending demand of the Sikh community to develop a Kartarpur corridor by making unwarranted reference to Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral and inalienable part of India," ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said in reply to a question.
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India's charge that Pakistan supports terrorism in India should not be seen as the BJP's pro-Hindu hyperbole. In fact, that has been the diplomatic stand for decades irrespective of governments and India has produced documented evidence to prove its version.
For example, Amarinder Singh, the Congress chief minister of Sikh-majority Punjab state and a former Indian army official, declined Pakistan's invitation to attend the Kartarpur function citing terrorism as a reason. "I will not go there for their ground-breaking ceremony unless Pakistan ends violence against India," he said.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. In terms of India-Pakistan ties, a lot depends on the delivery level. Khan may be Pakistan's PM but the diplomatic engine room regarding India is in the hands of army generals.
In fact, India too has a hangover from domestic politics. It believes no Pakistani general should be considered a moderate. To cap it all, on June 3, 2015, Raheel Sharif, the former Pakistan army chief, said: "Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of partition. Kashmir and Pakistan are inseparable."
For Indian PM Modi, the going has become tough in view of general elections next year. He needs to take a tough stance against Pakistan. Perceived bravado against Pakistan has helped Modi in the past to garner Hindu nationalist votes.
At least until India's national elections are over, it would be unrealistic to think of any peace talks. And that is because religious sentiments remain politically important in this part of the world.
(published by UCA News, Dec 4, 2018)
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