PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday made a case against religious conversion in Goa, claiming it was on the rise, while adding that soft targets like members of marginalised communities and the poor were being targetted.
“I’m not telling lies but in various parts of Goa today, people are stepping up conversions. And various people are trying to take advantage of trying circumstances... someone is poor, someone is in a minority, someone is backward, doesn’t have food, doesn’t have a job...” Sawant said at a function in Kudnem village in Bicholim.
“I’m saying that such religious conversions should not take place... the government will never allow conversions to take place, but I believe the people need to awaken, the temple in each village needs to awaken, small temple communities need to awaken,” the Chief Minister said.
“Sixty years back... people believed that if God is saved then the religion is saved and if religion is saved then the country is saved, with this in mind people used to flee along with their gods here in Goa,” he added.
“But sixty years back, many families, families of those who were displaced began trying to locate their kul devasthans (family deities) and restarted the devotion -- the gods and culture that were destroyed during the Portuguese rule, those families have tried to restore it,” Sawant said.
“At many places, we have seen the temples, but the people visit the temples only once a year, but not beyond that, but we need to remind the future generations of the rites and rituals of these temples,” he added.
The CM’s statement on conversions comes on the heels of the government starting the process of restoring temples which, according to him, were destroyed during the Portuguese colonial era.
The government’s Archives and Archaeology department has already begun work on the process of restoration of such temples for which Sawant in his recent budget speech had allocated Rs 20 crore.
Restoration of temples was one of the first decisions taken by Sawant on assuming the office as CM. The decision, however, came in for close scrutiny from the people.
