The appointment of Kummanam Rajasekharan as the new Mizoram governor has been met with steep opposition from a political party named People’s Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM), the New Indian Express has reported. Rajasekharan was appointed as the state’s governor on Tuesday.
The reasons cited by the political party include Rajasekharan opposition to Christian missionaries while being a member of Hindu groups like the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and RSS in Kerala. The party is also miffed over Rajasekharan’s supposed status as a staunch Hindu and opponent of secularism. Rajasekharan also used to be BJP’s state chief in Kerala.
As per a report by Northeast Now, the newly appointed governor since 1983 has been part of RSS, VHP and Hindu Aikya Vedi’s attempt to ward off Christian missionaries from the state. The report also lists out the party’s attempt at character assassination by calling him a “bigot”.
The protesters also allege that the governor had issues with Christians in general and was one of the key accused in an attack on Christian preacher Joseph Cooper. They also attributed to him an attempt to evict 50 missionaries from the state of Kerala in 2003.
President of PRISM named Vanlalruata, was quoted as giving a statement to the media that Mizoram is a “Christian state”, while Rajasekharan is a known RSS activist actively involved with Hindu organisations. This as per Vanlalruata is an election tactic by the BJP owing to the state elections, which are due later this year.
Incidentally, Vanlalruata describing Mizoram as a “Christian state” might be ironic in the circumstances considering, one of his party’s points of attack includes Rajasekharan’s supposed anti-secularism.
PRISM incidentally doesn’t want to fight this battle on its own and has appealed to church leaders, NGOs and Mizoram citizens to join forces with them to “drive him out of the state”.