ALL THE CHRISTIAN CHIEF MINISTERS!

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Joseph Vijay is not the first Christian chief minister of a large state. The late AK Antony became chief minister of Kerala in the late 70s. Undivided Andhra Pradesh had a Christian chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy followed by son YS Jaganmohan Reddy. The chief ministers of all north-eastern states are mostly Christians. Goa has had five Christian chief ministers but unfortunately not one of them completed a full term of five years.

CHRISTOPHER JOSEPH VIJAY is not the first Christian chief minister of a major Indian state. The distinction goes to AK Antony who was the elected the chief minister of Kerala way back in 1977 at the age of 36. Antony served two full five-year terms as chief minister under the Congress. And then he went on to become the Union defense minister. Antony was succeeded in Kerala by another Syrian Christian, Oommen Chandy.
Incidentally, Kerala which has returned the Congress to power in the recent assembly elections is searching for a chief minister.
It was Rajasekhara Reddy who became the second Christian chief minister of a large Indian state. In the case of Rajasekhara Reddy, he became the chief minister of the undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2004 and served till 2009 when he unfortunately died in a helicopter crash. His son Jaganmohan Reddy succeeded him as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.
In many states in the country the religious identity of a politician is not obvious because among the Protestants it is a tradition to retain their original Hindu names and even more important their caste identity. The Reddys have always been a dominant caste group in Andhra Pradesh.

GOA STORY
OUR own state of Goa has had as many as five Catholic chief ministers. The first of them was Churchill Alemao who toppled Pratapsingh Rane in 1989, two years after Goa became a state. His grievance was that he was not given the sports ministry. Churchill actually wanted Dr Proto Barbosa, the then speaker, to occupy the chief minister’s chair. There were legal problems as the speaker is considered neutral and has to return to the party from which he was elected. Churchill Alemao like Bharat in the “Mahabharat” held the fort for 45 days before making way for Proto Barbosa to become the chief minister.
Catholic chief ministers in Goa are immensely competitive. Dr Proto Barbosa was toppled by the surgeon Dr Wilfred d’Souza. After the 1994 assembly elections the High Command appointed Luizinho Faleiro as the chief minister. Luizino was toppled by Francisco Sardinha who gifted the state to the BJP. It was Francisco Sardinha who invited the BJP to share power with him and facilitated the entry of Manohar Parrikar into Goan politics.
The northeast states which are predominantly Christian have a long history of Christian chief ministers. Amongst the most prominent were PA Sangma who became chief minister of Meghalaya in the 90s. Subsequently, Sangma became the speaker of the Lok Sabha. In fact, the current chief minister of Meghalaya is Conrad Sangma, who is the son of the late PA Sangma. The first chief minister of Assam which has just been taken over by the BJP was Himanta Biswas Sarma. Actually, a Protestant. Mizoram had a chief minister called Lalduhoma. He was a former Indian police service officer who became chief minister of Mizoram in 2023. Amongst the other chief minister was Jamir of Nagaland who subsequently became governor of Goa.

CHRISTIANS ONLY 2.3%
THOUGH Christians comprise only 2.3% of the total Indian population they have played a major role in every aspect of life from politics to industry to education and medicine in the country. The first finance minister of the country from 1947 to 1950 was John Matthai, a leading economist. It is not widely known that the Bombay Hospital is named after him.
Amongst the defense ministers of India are two prominent Christians — AK Antony and George Fernandes. Among the most prominent media stalwarts were Frank Moraes and George Verghese who edited “The Indian Express” and “The Hindustan Times,” respectively. They were both victims of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency.
The corporate world has had its share of prominent Christians led by Verghese Kurian, who set up the largest milk cooperative and established the Amul brand. There have been other Kurians who have held senior positions in multinationals like Google. The high profile chairman of Hindustan Lever was Thomas Thomas. Victor Menezes was the chairman of City Bank.
It is the Syrian Catholics and the Goan Catholics who have played a major role in public life. Among the major high profile Goan Catholics are the former head of defense services General Sunit Rodrigues and the supercop Julio Rebeiro. Amongst the most prominent architects of Goa are Goan origin Charles Correa and chief town planner of India Edgar Ribeiro. Goan Catholics have dominated the advertising industry in the country. The most prominent names being Gerson d’Cunha of Lintas and Sylvester d’Cunha, his brother, who created the Amul campaign.
The Church both Protestant and Catholic has played a major role in education and medicare. The two elite education institutions like St Stephens in New Delhi and Bombay Scottish in Mumbai are run by Protestant trusts. Senior BJP leaders like LK Advani have been students of St Xavier’s schools and colleges run by the Jesuits. The first management institute in the country was the Xavier Institute of Labor Relations, it was started by the Jesuits under Father Rumoldo, who subsequently started the Goa Institute of Management. The chief minister of Tamil Nadu was a student of the visual arts stream of the Loyala College in Chennai.

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES
THE Christian missionaries also played a major role in setting up hospitals. Amongst the most prominent is the St John’s Group of Hospitals in Bengaluru and other state capitals in the south. Many major hospitals have been set up all over the country including the Christian Medical College & Hospital in Chennai. This is besides the superspeciality group set up by the missionaries in Vellore.

18% MUSLIMS
THE BJP cannot ignore or marginalize Christians, like the Muslims. The Muslims, though they account for almost 18% of the Indian population, have been systematically marginalized since 2014, when Narendra Modi came to power. Never mind that many prominent Muslims were part of the freedom movement and occupied senior positions in the Union cabinet at the Centre. Mualana Abdul Kalam Azad was an architect of secular India and the education minister in Jawarharlal Nehru’s cabinet. The most visible Muslim leader, who ironically supports the BJP, is Asaduddin Owaisi, the Muslim member of Parliament.
In the industrial sphere Asim Premji heads the IT giant WIPRO. Unlike the Tamil cinema which has few minority film stars, all the three Khans — Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan — are Muslims. Chennai’s contribution is the musical genius, AR Rahman.