Recently launched Christian centric organisation aims to break clichés; launches candidates into public life with focus on improving representation
Ruben Mascarenhas, National Joint Secretary, AAP
A new Christian organisation called the ‘All India Krista Sabha’ (AIKS) held its first meeting in Gorai on January 17. At the meet which saw a sizeable attendance from different gaothans, the prevailing sentiment was more representation of the community in the political sphere.
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There are so many different bodies, professing to be the voice and conscience of the community, yet the test of fire is sustainability as many of these simply fade away or are reduced to token representations.
Herbert Barretto, general secretary of the newly minted AIKS claimed that it is very early yet, but the AIKS has a clear agenda, the first of which is, “to look for a place in the political field through communication with different political parties.”
The notions
Barretto, who has been former secretary of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee said he got into politics in 1975, joining the Congress party after a Youth Congress District president in his building coaxed him to get into public life. Barretto said, “Politics is a dirty game, but you can keep your hands clean, you need a lot of interest and willpower to sustain in this sphere.”
Dolphy D’Souza, senior statesman of the community and spokesperson of the Bombay Catholic Sabha (BCS), said that the BCS upped political awareness and involvement through campaigns like enrolment of citizens as voters as state and general elections near. “We also have meet the candidates, gatherings. Yet, to make that leap from activism and work for civil society, to the hotbed of politics where one is in the system and involved individually takes some doing and it is happening. The individual aspect needs to be stressed as we live in a pluralistic society, where political parties on religious lines may not endure.”
The front
Just before the AIKS had its inauguration, we saw the birth of the United Christian Front (UCF) with some aims, one of which is, “promoting and supporting Christian candidates across all parties.” Advocate Alexander D’Souza, convenor UCF and Police Mohalla Committee member said, “For long now, there has been a belief across the community that politics per se is bad, that it is wrong, and we have suffered because of that. We have generally aligned away from politics, but it is time for people to come into the mainstream and see it as a career option. That is why we have general advisors as part of the UCF and political advisors too. When we enter politics, we become part of the system. There has to be an awakening that good people can come into this field.”
The hotbed
National Joint Secretary, Aam Aadmi Party Ruben Mascarenhas chose to make the leap from citizen to political party member. He said, “Generally, politics is seen as a messy affair, as complicated and there is the notion that oh, so and so is entering politics, he must be corrupt. This is also because the growth trajectory within a political party is not clearly defined, unlike say, in a corporate setting where one climbs the rungs of the ladder, through the years. Yet, I do see some change. The initial do-not-touch-politics attitude is giving way to curiosity, though there is some ignorance too. People often ask me, ‘Ruben, do you make enough money to pay your bills? How does it work?’ Questions are being asked and there is interest, so I take this as indication of a changing mindset.”
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