PANAJI
The Congress on Friday took up cudgels on behalf of the Christian community in the State a day after TCP Minister and Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai likened CM Manohar Parrikar to Jesus Christ. Congress chief Girish Chodankar took to Twitter to demand an apology from Sardesai.
“Comparing Parrikar to Jesus is sacrilege and an insult to Christians which pierces a sword though the heart of every Goan,” wrote Chodankar, adding that while Jesus was the truth, “these two” (Sardesai and Parrikar) were liars.
Earlier in the day, spokespersons of the Congress Sunil Kawthankar and Adv Rohit Bras de Sa, while calling Sardesai’s statement the “biggest insult to religious sentiments of Christians”, said that these statements by any minister would not be tolerated. De Sa, while demanding an apology from Sardesai, also likened Sardesai to the apostle Judas, who betrayed Jesus.
“These statements of Sardesai’s are coming from a person like Judas who back-stabbed Jesus for a few pieces of silver,” said Adv De Sa, who recalled the time Sardesai had backstabbed the people in his constituency by supporting the BJP to form the government, even though he had promised never to side with the BJP. “He betrayed the people of his party, and his supporters and friends like Prabhakar Timble, Dr Francisco Colaco and Aires Rodrigues,” said De Sa.
Further, De Sa slammed the minister for calling the “scriptures” in the Bible “sayings.” “The Bible is not a novel,” he said, adding that the “sayings” Sardesai was referring to could be the false sayings in the Goa Forward Party manifesto. “Sardesai had promised special status for Goa, zero tolerance for the drug trade, and affordable prices of fish,” said the spokesperson, pointing out that none of these promises had been fulfilled. Rather, the party said that after Parrikar had built a bridge with Sardesai, Sardesai had been allocated the TCP portfolio and had introduced the 16 B act for the sole purposes of filling his pockets.
The party also reminded how dead against Parrikar Sardesai had been, even calling Parrikar a dictator.
