PANAJI
Goddess Durga appears to have emerged as a consistent political theme in poll-bound Goa.
A day after Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and the Goa Forward (GF) party sparred over references to a ‘certain’ Durga from West Bengal and Goa’s very own Shantadurga made by GF’s working president Kiran Kandolkar, BJP’s Ports Minister Michael Lobo pitched in with his own pearls of wisdom on the issue.
“Every lady in Goa is a Durga. Every woman is a Durga in Goa. I believe in that way. When they want to stand for their rights, they can become Durga when they stand for their rights,” Lobo told reporters outside the state legislative assembly complex, when asked to comment on the debate between Sawant and Kandolkar.
“Otherwise they are all calm, all peaceful, very loving and they take care of this beautiful state of Goa very well. We do not want a special Durga. I do not believe in that,” Lobo also said.
The debate spiralled after Kandolkar, while alluding to the entry of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party Trinamool Congress’ entry to Goa had said: “Anything can happen in the coming days. Navaratris are going on...I feel that we will have to get Durga to Goa. The Durga in Goa is referred to as Shantadurga. She is calm. We will have to get the real Durga from Kolkata to Goa to destroy this bhasmasur-like government”.
Reacting to Kandolkar’s statement, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had retaliated against the equating of goddess Shantadurga to a human being.
“Devi Shantadurga is our prime deity. We worship Devi Shantadurga. Goans will not like Shantadurga being compared to someone, especially a human being. No one will accept it. Goans will not tolerate comparing Devi Shantadurga to a human being,” Sawant had said.
BJP MLA from Thivim Nilkanth Halarnkar had also weighed in on the issue, but with a rider. Halarnkar said that while it was unfair to compare Banerjee to Shantadurga, it was also improper to compare Lord Ram with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Anyone can say Modi is ‘like’ Lord Ram but nobody can take the place of God. For Rawat, as an individual, Modi can be his God. But we cannot say Modi is Lord Ram. The PM must have helped him (Rawat) and therefore he must have said that he is God,” Halarnkar had said.
When asked about a statement made by former BJP chief minister of Uttarakhand, Tirath Singh Rawat who compared PM Narendra Modi to Lord Ram, Halarnkar said: “In Hindu mythology Ram is the avatar of God. Ram is not a man. So we cannot compare him with anyone”.
