The Goa Cabinet has cleared (of course with the sole intention of distracting Goans from real issues like Sec 39A, upcoming mega-projects in villages, illegal land conversions etc) anti-conversion bill that proposes imprisonment of upto 14 years for unlawful religious conversions and is set to be tabled during the Assembly’s monsoon session beginning August 31. Now, why is the government so much hell-bent on passing this particular bill at the behest of its own political bosses from Delhi and RSS when there is absolutely no evidence nor record of any forcible religious conversion activities going on in the state? Or does the government want to start filing some bogus complaints, cases against all the priests/lay people by misusing this proposed anti-conversion law and start harassing the Christian community (like being done in most BJP-ruled states) for indulging in so-called 'forcible' religious conversion activities to further its own communal agenda in Goa? I think that the state government should dare to pass a bill to severely punish elected leaders, politicians with life imprisonment who are found giving hate speeches, jumping from one political party to another after getting elected, begging for votes through coercion, allurement and religion.
JERRY FERNANDES, Saligao
