the goan I network
PANAJI
Unsettled by the rumblings in his government over the possible political fallout of the direct involvement of Catholic Church in the ongoing protests against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and also the associated measures of National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will directly engage with Archbishop Filipe Neri
Ferrao and has sought an appointment.
Sawant while interacting with the media on Wednesday said he will meet Ferrao “in a day or two” and that he has officially sought an appointment with the religious head of the Catholic Church.
Ferrao had last week publicly called on the Centre to revoke the CAA and had also severely criticised the NPR and NRC in a rare public statement concerning a socio-political issue.
He had termed them “divisive and discriminatory” in the statement released through the communication arm of the Diocese.
Ferrao’s statement had triggered nervous and frenetic statements from the ruling BJP politicians, particularly the Catholic legislators from the saffron party, who questioned the propriety of the religious head to comment on political matters which could vitiate the situation
communally.
Transport and Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho was the first to critically respond to Ferrao’s statement but the reaction of the politicos had its genesis to a meeting of the ruling legislators with Sawant nearly three weeks ago where Power Minister Nilesh Cabral had sounded the warning bugle over the Church’s direct involvement in the anti-CAA protests.
Cabral had warned Sawant to intervene with the Church’s leaders to check the adverse political fallout on their party after the latter’s social arm Council for Social Justice and Peace (CSJP) had itself decided to hold a public rally against CAA at Margao which attracted massive support.
At that meeting, Sawant had assured that he would make efforts to meet Ferrao officially and clarify the “misconceptions” about CAA.
His office, however, did not follow up with the plan but on Wednesday Sawant himself confirmed that the office of the Archbishop has been informed of his desire to officially meet urgently.
The Chief Minister, however, did not clearly say whether he will discuss with Ferrao the apprehensions he and others protesting against CAA, NRC and NPR are raising when the meeting does indeed take place within the next two days.
