The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: In a hurry to get on to his party’s bandwagon against opposition Congress’s statement on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Nagaland deputy chief minister and a top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from the Northeast, Yanthungo Patton, seemed to have only flaunted his ignorance about the country he was siding with.
The Hindutva brigade came out in full support of Israel and termed Hamas (and also all of Palestine, civilians included) a ‘terrorist’ on social media platforms in tandem with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s all-out support to Israel.
Northeast BJP leaders like Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma soon jumped on to X to follow the prime minister’s line. Patton seemed to have thought of adding an extra angle to grab the attention of the Christian-majority population of his state. In an upload on X, he accused the Congress of being “anti-Christian” by claiming that Israel is a “Christian country”.
“Congress party is anti-Christian party. PM Modi stood in solidarity with a Christian country – Israel, but Congress party instead of supporting Israel supports terrorist Hamas. So Congress Party is anti-Christian,” he wrote.
Soon, Patton, an MLA from the Christian-majority Tyui assembly constituency, was trolled for not knowing that Israel is a Jewish state and yet commenting on the Israel-Palestine face-off. It pushed him to delete the text, but not before it went viral in the region.
On October 13 morning, Patton put out another post on X which said, “In the context of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, regardless of the religious compositions, it is essential that we, as people of the world, never side with terror and terrorists. India has been clear about it and the stance has been strongly echoed by our honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji. However, if any individual or political party side with terror, it raises serious questions about their commitment to well-being of people across world and global peace.”
However, by the time the Nagaland BJP leader came up with the new statement, the Modi government altered its initial position on the Israel-Hamas conflict. Like the Congress in its statement had called for shunning violence and reiterated India’s longstanding Palestine policy by referring to the “legitimate aspirations” of the Palestinian people, the Ministry of External Affairs too said on October 12, “Our policy in this regard (a Palestinian state) has been long-standing and consistent. India has always advocated resumption of direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine living within secure and recognized borders, side by side at peace with Israel.”