MARGAO
TMC’s Benaulim candidate Churchill Alemao on Monday slammed the Aam Aadmi Party for politics over the demolition of a religious site “ The Little Flower Church.
Clarifying his stance on filing a writ petition in the Delhi High Court seeking orders to rebuild the Little Flower Church, which was demolished last year, Churchill Alemao said he is not politicizing the issue. On the contrary, he made it crystal clear that it is his responsibility to be the voice for any religion when injustice is meted out.
“This time, I stand with my Christian brothers and sisters. And this isn’t the first time I have been with what is right. Everyone knows how I stood by my Muslim brothers when they were facing a hard time. But to say that I’m playing petty politics based on religion is wrong. I don’t need to do this to gain advantage”, he said.
Lashing out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Churchill said that he was fooling Goenkars by claiming that he was unaware of the demolition orders. Churchill said, “No one has the right to obstruct any community from practising their religion, as per the Constitution. But Kejriwal did that. He was fully aware of the demolition orders, but now he has tried to feign ignorance about the same. How can a CM not know if a church in his region is being razed? This is unacceptable.”
Expressing his surprise that news of the writ petition has not gone down well with certain political parties out to hoodwink the people of Goa, Churchill said he and daughter Valanka had visited the Little Flowers Church in Delhi on their own accord as they were pained to see how the Christian place of worship was razed even without removing the images.
“The religious authorities in Delhi did not invite me to visit the site. But as a Christian and a citizen of this country, I had only done my duty of demanding justice for the church and the parishioners”, he said.
Churchill added: “In the past too, I had stopped the screening of the Da Vinci Code movie in Goa. That time too, I was not told to do so by the religious authorities, but I had protested since the movie was blasphemous to my religion. Again, when the Bajrang Dal tried to disturb the peace and religious harmony at the Sancoale Church, I was the first to protest and demand police action against the miscreants. No religious authority had told me to take the stand on the issue”.
Churchill said he will always remain in the forefront to take up the issue and remain with the people whenever his religion or any other religion comes under threat.
