NEW DELHI, India — Caution seems to be the watchword for the Catholic Church in India.

The ruling coalition led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is upbeat about its prospects of retaining power in the protracted Indian elections that were scheduled to begin April 20.

“We have to be very careful. We do not want to take sides or be identified with any political party,” Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, president of the Bishops' Conference of India, said April 13 from his arch-diocesan office in Ranchi in eastern Jharkhand state.

“Our stance is very clear. We have given the guidelines for the voters; now it is for them to decide whom to elect,” said Cardinal Toppo, apparently referring to the “appeal to the electorate” the bishops' conference issued in early March.

Reminding Catholic voters not to “abdicate one's democratic right and duty,” the bishops' conference's voter guidelines exhort the faithful to choose political parties that will ensure the fundamental rights of minorities, protect the interests of poor and avoid sectarian agendas.

The bishops' conference appeal came on the heels of the federal election commission's announcement Feb. 29 of the schedule for the national election, spread out over four days between April 20 and May 10 to allow movement of security personnel and polling officials to oversee a process with more than 650 million eligible voters.

The Church election guidelines remind voters to exercise their franchise in favor of parties that “will preserve and promote social cohesion, communal harmony and cultural plurality [and] address the social problems such as discrimination against certain sections of society and religious fundamentalism.”

The appeal to the electorate ends with a reminder to Catholic and other voters to ensure their votes will go to parties that “will promote true religious values and will not exploit religion for sectarian and divisive purposes.”

The Church voter guidelines are reflective of the steady rise in anti-Christian violence and propaganda during the tenure of the outgoing federal coalition government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party since March 1998.

“Whatever the government that is elected, we want the religious plurality and diversity of India to be preserved,” Cardinal Toppo commented when asked about the Church's hopes for the elections.

Pressed further about whether the Church would favor political parties whose ideologies are closer to the Church guidelines, Cardinal Toppo replied, “We believe in the wisdom of the people, who are very intelligent. They have thrown out governments for their failures. For us, all parties are equal.”

Beyond that line, Church officials and others have adopted a diplomatic silence amid several opinion polls and election forecasts predicting victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in combination with 20-odd smaller political parties, most of them regional entities.

“It seems everyone is now worried about the post-election scenario,” said Jesuit Father Prakash Luis, executive director of the Jesuit-run Indian Social Institute in New Delhi.

Father Luis said that though secular social-activist groups were initially enthusiastic with plans to mobilize voters and campaign against the Bharatiya Janata Party, the “disunity” among opposition parties has “disheartened” social activists.

As an example, he cited the situation in northern Uttar Pradesh state, which accounts for 80 seats to the 545-member Indian Parliament. The state, with 170 million people, will witness four-cornered contests among the Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition Congress party and two other strong regional parties, even though all of the last three have declared the Bharatiya Janata Party as their principal enemy.

With the opposition parties failing to reach an understanding to avoid division of secular votes in Bharatiya Janata Party strongholds, Father Luis said social activists now think the elections are “a lost cause already.”

However, several Christian groups have been openly campaigning against the pro-Hindu platform of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which promised to curb conversions in its election manifesto released in New Delhi in the first week of April. Many Christians blame the Bharatiya Janata Party — which professes the dictum “One Nation, One Culture, One People” in a diverse nation where Hindus account for nearly 80% of the total population of more than 1 billion — for fostering a climate that has encouraged persecution of religious minorities.

Concern over the prospects of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition returning to power evoked strong words of warning at the recent national convention of Catholic journalists and from groups like the All India Catholic Union and the All India Christian Council.

“In the last five years, we have witnessed political parties that were elected to govern the people fail to respect their mandate,” said the statement from the March 12-14 assembly of the Indian Catholic Press Association. The association assembly, attended by 70 leading Catholic editors and journalists, urged the voters to defeat “opportunistic alliances [that] bring ideologies of hate and intolerance.”

Earlier, the Fellowship of Catholic Professionals along with the Catholic Association and Christian Renewal Movement of India held a meeting in Chennai in south India calling for “creating political awareness among the faithful” against the hostile agenda of Hindu nationalists.

“The Christian community is divided and scattered. But it can make a significant contribution in the elections,” argued John Dayal, a prominent Catholic activist. Apart from southern Kerala state, where the large Christian minority plays a crucial role in elections, Dayal suggested Christians in tribal regions in Gujarat, Orissa, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand states could also play a “critical” role in defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party.

India bishops' conference spokesman Father Babu Joseph said Church organizations have been encouraging the faithful to ensure their names do figure in the voter list. The Catholic Sabha (Forum) of the Bombay Archdiocese persuaded 180,000 Catholic voters to enroll their names this year in the run-up to the elections. Hindu nationalists have been accused of systematically removing the names of Christians from the voter list in some areas.

Father Joseph reiterated that “as a matter of policy, the Church will not support any candidate or a particular party. It is for the voters to choose.”

Anto Akkara writes from New Delhi, India.