In troubled Indian state, Christian minority hopes elections will bring government devoted to justice
April 10, 2014
Christians in India’s troubled Kandhamal region are worried about the outcome of elections, but “they believe in democracy and the power of the vote,” Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar has told the AsiaNews service.
Voting opened April 10 in the state of Orissa, where Kandhamal is located. Since 1998 the state has been governed by the Hindu-nationalist BJP party. During that time Kandhamal has seen repeated violence against the Christian minority—most notably in bloody mob attacks in 2008-- with victims protesting that government officials ignored or even encouraged the violence. Archbishop Barwa said that Christians hope for “the new government to give justice to the victims of the carnage of 2008.”
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