Several messages have been doing the rounds (some from highly respected Catholic editors/ former editors) claiming that there are 17 Christians who have been elected to the Lok Sabha (LS) in the recent elections.
There are actually 13, not 17, as per the list attached that includes their party and the State from which they were elected. 5 each are from the North East and Kerala and one each are from Goa, Tamilnadu and Andhra. Of these 9 are from the Congress party and 4 from various regional parties, belying the common belief that the community is tied to one particular political party. 13/543 is 2.4% that is commensurate with the Christian population of 2.3%
When the list of LS winners was published on 5th June I sent out an urgent message to my contacts across the country, mentioning 16 names, of which I was sure of 12, and needed clarity on the remaining 4. Subsequently one from Andhra was confirmed, taking the tally to 13. There were three names from Tamilnadu that had Selva in them, commonly used by Christians. However, my sources clarified to me that Selva meant “rich” in Tamil, and was not limited to the Christian community. So the tally remained at 13.
However, some people used my original list (the order and even a spelling mistake have been copy pasted) claiming 16. Later a 17th name was added, that of Tharm Tharagai of the Congress from Tamilnadu. However, this name itself does not feature in any published list, hence needs to be discarded.
I had released my verified list of 13 LS MPs on our video channel V.O.I.C.E. on 11th June. In the interim some more names popped up:
1. Sasikant Sentil ex IAS, of the Congress, from Tiruvallur, Tamilnadu. This again was incorrect, as he is a Dalit, not Christian.
2. Pabitra Magehretta, a BJP Rajya Sabha member from Assam since 2002. He too was identified as Christian. This again was baseless. Perhaps some over enthusiastic journalist saw some similarity with the Christian name Margaret! So this is also fake news.
3. A viewer of the video commented that Manoj Kumar Bhartiya of the Congress, from Sasaram, Bihar was also Christian. He won on an SC Reserved seat, hence cannot be Christian. Interestingly this seat was earlier held by Jagjivan Ram and later by his daughter Meira Kumar. This Manoj has several criminal cases pending against him, including attempt to murder (IPC 307) and criminal intimidation (IPC 506). Nothing to crow about.
Readers may also be interested to know how other Minority communities fared. 24 Muslims were elected, a strike rate of 4.4%, as against their population of about 15%. On a pro rata basis they should have 81 LS MPs. The Sikhs won 10 seats all from Punjab, a strike rate of 1.8% again commensurate with their population of 1.7%. The Buddhists have their perennial Kiren Rjiju from Arunachal.
I have also received some queries about ministerial berths. There are just 4 ministers from the minority communities in Modi’s 72 member jumbo cabinet. Of these the only one to be elected is Rijiju. Of the two Sikhs, H.S. Puri, a former bureaucrat, is a member of the Rajya Sabha. Fair enough. However, what took everyone by surprise was the induction of Ravneet Singh Bittu, since he actually lost the LS election from Ludhiana. The lone ranger from the Christian community is George Kurian, a Supreme Court lawyer from Kerala, who has been a BJP loyalist for 40 years. He too is not a member of either house.
I trust that the above will bring clarity about the Christian presence in the Lok Sabha. Jai Hind.
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