Verghese V Joseph –
Pope Francis is likely to visit India next year. The Holy Father informed this on Sunday during his flight back to Rome from South Sudan.
This lends further credence as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National Secretary Rituraj Sinha, after the party announced the names of its candidates on Thursday for Assembly elections in Meghalaya said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent out an invite to Pope Francis to visit India.”
“It was during Atal Bihari’s prime ministership that Pope John Paul II visited India. Last month, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Shillong he said that he has requested Pope Francis to visit India,” added Sinha.
The Holy Father had expressed his desire to visit India in 2017, however, that did not materialise.
In the northeast, the BJP-governed Tripura will go to polls on February 16, while Meghalaya goes to polls on February 27 along with Nagaland. Meghalaya has over 75 percent Christian population.
India’s only Catholic Chief Minister Conrad Kongkal Sangma is the current Chief Minister of Meghalaya. The BJP is a minority coalition partner with Sangma’s National People’s Party (NPP). In 2018, it won two-seat securing 9.6 percent of the votes cast.
Meghalaya has a legacy of political instability with constant changing of parties by the MLAs. According to the latest count, the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government had 33 seats — NPP 20, the United Democratic Party (UDP) 8, BJP 3 and the People’s Democratic Front (PDF) 2. In the opposition, the TMC has 8 seats and 19 seats are vacant. The BJP has decided to go solo and is contesting in all 60 assembly seats for the Meghalaya Election 2023. A papal visit announcement might just help the party get the required favourable swing.
Altogether nine states — Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, and Mizoram — besides Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland will poll before the 2024 general election and four — Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim — around the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek another mandate.
A papal visit can bestow an edge on his leadership, especially when India is heading into national elections in 2024, and can help the ruling party reap rich electoral harvest.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Pope Francis in the Vatican in 2021, he extended an invitation to visit India, which the pontiff accepted in principle. Mr. Modi’s meeting with the Pope came just before his two-day G-20 summit in Rome, ahead of the COP26 climate summit at Glasgow in Scotland.
Soon after the meeting, Mr Modi tweeted the outcome of the meeting. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar accompanied him. The meeting was scheduled only for 20 minutes but went on for an hour.