the goan I network
PANAJI
A Goan Jesuit was among 15 pastors who expressed their displeasure with the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) to BJP Working President JP Nadda Monday evening.
Nadda had convened a meeting with the 15 pastors of a Christian delegation at his residence in Motilal Nehru Marg, New Delhi, along with BJP Vice President Dushyant Gautam and Tom Vadakkan, as part of the BJP’s Jan Sampark Abhiyan and to win over the Christian community in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Nadda initially spoke about his Jesuit education in St Xavier’s HS, Patna, and went on to recall names of all his Jesuit teachers.
“Nadda then went on to explain the need of CAA to help persecuted minorities, including Christians of 3 Islamic countries get citizenship and sought to clarify on misinformation being spread on the Act,” said Fr Denzil Fernandes, Executive Director of Indian Social Institute at New Delhi, who was present at the meeting.
“The delegation expressed its concern over the discriminatory nature of the law and I requested him to consider making the law religion-neutral and extending citizenship to persecuted people from all neighbouring countries including Sri Lanka and Burma.”
Stating that the Christian pastors expressed concerns about the CAA, Fr Fernandes added: “We told him that we have problems with the selective nature of choosing certain communities of certain countries. We argued that if such a law should come about, it should be religion-neutral.”
“The law cannot be selective. There are Burmese refugees also who are persecuted. Any law which is based on religion is highly problematic. The law should be expanded,” Fr Fernandes said.
The meeting at the BJP President’s house was attended by priests from the Catholic, Methodist, Jacobite and Marthoma churches in New Delhi.
Incidentally, despite reservations by the Christian pastors on CAA, the BJP later posted a tweet stating: “Representatives of Christian and Buddhist communities met BJP National Working President Shri @JPNadda in support of Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, in New Delhi. #IndiaSupportsCAA”
