India | July 12, 2024
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As reported by the New Indian Express on 15 June 2024, an unknown person threw a bomb into the Baptist church on 14 June in Cuttack city in Odisha. None of the Christians attending a late-evening meeting in the church were hurt. This attack comes in the wake of another bomb being hurled at a mosque in the Sambalpur district of Odisha on 16 March at the close of a prayer meeting. The bomb fell on a motorcycle and three Muslim youth sustained injuries (The Observer Post, 26 March 2024).
Ryan Benjamin working for World Watch Research comments: “This church-bombing should be read in the light of significant political shifts in Odisha. In both the Assembly elections and general elections held mid-May to 1 June 2024, the BJP has emerged as the frontrunner ending the 24-year reign over Odisha by the regional party Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led by Praveen Patnaik. At the Assembly, the BJP won 78 seats (four more seats than the required majority, 55 seats more than in the 2019 elections) while the BJD only won 51 seats (a loss of 61 seats compared to the 2019 elections). The Congress Party won just 14 seats, gaining five seats compared to the 2019 elections. The shift of power was even more drastic in the national elections with BJP winning 20 out of 21 seats (an increase of 12 seats) while Congress could only win one seat, the same as in 2019. No seats were won by the BJD who lost 12 seats compared to the 2019 elections.”
Ryan Benjamin continues: “The BJP has appointed Mohan Charan Majhi, a tribal leader, as the new Chief Minister of Odisha. In 2022, Majhi (then the chief whip of the BJP in the state assembly) joined a protest demanding Dara Singh’s release from prison. Dara Singh, who belonged to the radical Hindu youth organization Bajrang Dal, was implicated in the murder of missionary Graham Staines and his two sons who were burned to death in a vehicle in 1999. In his trial in 2003, he was awarded the death sentence but subsequently the Odisha High Court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. With the BJP taking control of Odisha at the national level and in the state, and with a hardline radical like Majhi in charge of the state, it is very likely that violence against Christians and Muslims will see a sharp rise in Odisha in the coming months.”
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