: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s plan to immerse the ashes of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Nagaland’s Doyang river has been labelled an imposition of “alien rituals” on the Christian-majority State.

On Friday, the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) said the immersion of Mr. Vajpayee’s ashes in rivers across the country was an insult to “our way of life” as well as to the memory of the former PM.

In a statement, the NPCC said the BJP and its Nagaland unit have turned the immersion of ashes into a “circus” for petty political gains.

“Having consigned Vajpayee into political oblivion after the 2004 election defeat and rendering his political thoughts and actions irrelevant through divisive agenda and hate politics, the BJP’s sudden affection for the former PM after his demise is just a ploy to extract some cheap political mileage,” the NPCC said.

“Nagaland BJP displaying their eagerness to please their communal masters by following and observing rituals that are alien to our way of life is an insult to all right-thinking Nagas. While Nagas have been struggling for the past seven decades to protect our unique history, the all-out attempt by the State BJP to assimilate themselves into a new alien culture as dictated by their high command is a severe assault on the aspirations of the Nagas and their future,” the Congress statement said.

The party added: “Respecting others’ belief and culture should not be at the cost of compromising our very own belief and culture that forms the core foundation of our existence as individual and as tribe. The zealous conduct of the State BJP president (Temjen Imna Along Longkumer) in propagating the Hindutva culture of the RSS in the State which is even despised by majority of Hindus across the country therefore needs to be seriously condemned.”

Mr. Longkumer had brought an urn containing Mr. Vajpayee’s ashes from New Delhi on Thursday for immersion in Doyang. The urn was kept at the party office in Dimapur but many in the party, aware of the consequences, were not happy with it.

A senior Nagaland BJP leader, declining to be quoted, said the party would take a decision on Saturday whether or not to immerse the ashes within the State.