Guwahati: After protests by different tribal bodies and churches, the Nagaland unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party restricted a program to immerse the ashes of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to a secret function.

Protests poured in from different church bodies and tribal Hohos (apex bodies) after the saffron party unit announced that it would immerse the ashes in Doyang river at Wokha through massive program.

While the Nagaland unit of the BJP justified the immersion program not as a religious issue but a national one considering the popularity of the leader, the opposition parties and tribal bodies slammed the move saying immersion of ashes was neither a part of Naga culture nor a religious belief in Naga society.

The Congress in Nagaland also slammed the immersion plan as a gimmick to gain political mileage.

Nagaland BJP president Temjen Imna Along Longkumer, however, immersed the ashes of the veteran leader at a small river in Dimapur, the commercial capital of the northeastern Indian state, secretly, instead of immersing those in Doyang river in Wokha as announced. He said the ritual was completed as planned.

“People are making an issue out of nothing. It is not a religious issue but a national issue as Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a icon. As Christians also we all prayed. However, the priests did what they had to do and we took part as we thought it to be right,” Longkumer said after completion of the ritual on August 27.

Earlier, the Lotha Hoho, the apex body of Lotha tribe opposed the move and said that immersion of the ashes was neither a cultural practice nor a religious belief in Nagaland and opined that the distinct culture of the Nagas should not be diluted.

Reverend Zelhou Keyho, general secretary of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council, noted that the Church had joined the rest the country to mourn Vajpayee’s death.

“However in a Christian-dominated state, if the state BJP president was eager to lower the dignity of his professed faith in undertaking a ritual of another religion, all because of being a BJP, then it would be a very unwise and unwarranted move,” he added.

Vajpayee died on August 20 after a prolonged illness.

Source: ndtv.com