the goan I network
PANAJI
The swelling ground and in particular Goa’s powerful Catholic Church joining to protest against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Registry of Citizens (NRC), has begun to sting and disturb ruling Bharatiya Janata Party politicians.
Several ruling party legislators, including ministers, expressed grave apprehensions over the growing support for the protests at the meeting with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant held on Wednesday at his official Altinho residence.
Sawant responded by telling his flock to calm down and that he and other leaders in the government will engage with the leadership in the Church to dispel any apprehensions. The chief minister even went to the extent of telling the apprehensive ministers that the government will officially seek an appointment with Archbishop Felipe Neri Ferrao and discuss the issue with him.
Power Minister Nilesh Cabral led the chorus and opined that the involvement of the Church in the protests against CAA, NRC and NPR could have massive political repercussions, especially in South Goa.
Cabral said priests and lay leaders in the Church were already going around house to house to mobilise people and build sentiment against the three controversial legislations.
They are drumming up support for the rally scheduled at Lohia Maidan in Margao on Friday, he reportedly told the Chief Minister, adding that it will certainly vitiate the political atmosphere negatively for the BJP.
Several other legislators particularly those from the group of 10 who defected from the Congress to the BJP in August last year including WRD Minister, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Clafacio Dias and Wilfred D’Sa among are also said to have expressed concern to the Chief Minister.
Cortalim MLA, Alina Saldanha, was another legislator who voiced her concern over the anti-CAA-NRC-NPR agitation. On Sunday she had stirred up a controversy after an altercation with a top South Central Railway official, when the latter referred to her and others agitating against the demolition of some houses for double-tracking the railway line, as Portuguese.
Sawant on his part asked the MLAs to dispel the “misinformation” against the legislations but assured the minister and legislators that the government will officially engage with the leaders of the Church.
“None of the minorities in Goa will be affected by any of the three legislations,” Sawant told the ministers and legislators who raised the matter, according to one MLA who was present.
Protests against the controversial CAA and the linked NRC and NPR have been sporadically held across Goa ever since protests began erupting in Delhi and across the nation since December when the legislation was controversially passed by Parliament.
But last week, the agitation took wings after the Church through its social arm - Centre for Social Justice and Peace - threw its weight behind the movement and itself tied up with other civil society organisations to announce a protest rally on Friday, January 24 at the Lohia Maidan.
