TNN | Nov 28, 2011, 03.43PM IST
AIZAWLl: The fear of the Biblical Beast still haunts some people in the Christian-dominated northeastern state of Mizoram and this is posing as a hurdle for election officials who are trying to draw up accurate voters' lists.
As many as 221 voters of Serlui assembly constituency along the Mizoram-Assam border in Kolasib district decided to forsake their rights to franchise for fear of bearing the mark or the number of the Beast or Satan. The number of Satan, who is also called the Prince of Darkness, is 666.
These people appealed to election officials to delete their names from the electoral rolls during the ongoing summary revision of voters' lists. "The names of 221 voters, including 104 women, have been deleted from the voters' lists after their pleas," an election official said, adding majority of the people were from Vairengte town near Assam border.
The fear stems from the Bible's Book of Revelation, which says, "That no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark or the name of the Beast or the number of his name."
The people, whose devotion to religion borders on bigotry, firmly believe that they will be damned if they are identified or marked with the number of the Beast and will go to hell.
What these people actually fear, according to the election officials, is the Unique Identification (UID) process and the preparation of voters' list was mistaken for the UID exercise.
"Even after we explained to them that it is the constitutional duty of citizens to have voting rights, we failed to persuade them to be re-enrolled in the voters' lists," said an official.
These people are not wary any possible negative consequences they might have to face for refusing to be included in the voters' lists but they live in mortal fear of being marked by the number of the Beast or Satan due to their strong beliefs.
It may be recalled that around 1,000 families, including those in the remotest parts, refused to enroll their names in the Census 2011. While many of these people belonged to various small religious sects, members of the largest churches - the Presbyterian Church and the Baptist Church - were no exception.
Many of them relented after being persuaded by both the government and the churches, but this time around, some people are still skeptical, the officials discovered.