Law Minister Alexio Sequeira
MARGAO
Salcete’s lone Minister Alexio Sequeira parried questions on Chief Minister Pramod Sawant repeatedly raking up the issue of temples razed down during the Portuguese colonial rule, saying he cannot comment on what the Chief Minister must have stated on the issue.
He, however, sought to give a clean chit to the Chief Minister on his secular credentials, saying the CM has never given him the chance to feel that he belongs to the minority community. In fact, Sequeira said the intervention by the Chief Minister paved the way for the smooth celebration of the feast of St Jose Vaz at Sancoale this year.
In fact, blaming the fanatics belonging to all religious communities for vitiating the peaceful atmosphere, Sequeira said the Chief Minister has taken a pro-active stand in a bid to resolve the Portuguese passport tangle, primarily affecting the minority Catholic community.
“I have been closely working with the Chief Minister for a year or so now. I have not experienced the slightest feeling that I am a Catholic and he a Hindu. He has never given me the chance to feel that I belong to the minority community. I want to give him the credit for taking up the Portuguese passport issue primarily affecting the Catholic community. He has taken up the issue in right earnest and will come up with a solution with the government of India. The Chief Minister has had meetings in Delhi, including Home Minister Amit Shah and it is his wish to resolve the issue”, he said.
Referring to a query posed to him sometime back why he had gone to Ayodhya with the Chief Minister, Sequeira said, “Our Chief Minister has been attending the Feast mass of St Francis Xavier at Old Goa. They don’t look at the issue in a communal way. We go to their places of worship and they reciprocate by attending our religious functions”, he said.
When asked whether the issue of Shivaji statue raked in certain quarters will not come in the way of the BJP’s bid to make inroads into the minority vote bank in the coming election, Sequeira said “One should know there are fanatics in all religious communities, Hindus, Christian and Muslim. Whether we like it or not, these fanatics vitiate the peaceful atmosphere. I would like to say that Goa is an ideal place where all the religious communities freely mix”.
He added: “Today, a special train from Goa carrying around 1,000 pilgrims, headed to the pilgrim centre of Our Lady of Vailankani, including around 150 Hindus. It’s just these few fanatics in all religions who vitiate the atmosphere and create problems. Our response should be to suppress these types of people and not encourage them”.
