Goa BJP leaders train guns on Archbishop after anti-CAA statement

Goa BJP leaders now appear to have trained their guns on Goa Archbishop Fr. Filipe Neri Ferrao, with the spiritual and religious head now being asked by ruling party to steer clear of governance matters and chided him for seeking government's financial aid to run Church-run educational institutions.

The development comes after Ferrao on Saturday had slammed the CAA and the central government's attempt to push the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register as divisive and discriminatory in nature.

On Monday, Goa Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Narendra Sawaikar tweeted saying if the Citizenship Amendment Act is discriminatory, then even the Article 30, which specifically safeguards minority institutions from discrimination, is also discriminatory.

"If #CAA is discriminatory for Goa #Archbishop, then Article 30 of Constitution of India is more discriminatory. Don''t claim benefits at taxpayers money by claiming minority status! #CAA @Pontifex," Sawaikar said in his tweet.

On February 8, Ferrao had said: "The Archbishop and the Catholic community of Goa would like to appeal to the government to listen to the voice of millions in India, to stop quashing the right to dissent and, above all, to immediately and unconditionally revoke the CAA and desist from implementing the NRC and the NPR.'"

The CAA, NRC and NPR are 'divisive and discriminatory' and will certainly have a 'negative and damaging effect' on a multi-cultural democracy like ours, the church said".

"There is serious concern that NRC and NPR will result in 'direct victimisation of the underprivileged classes, particularly Dalits, adivasis, migrant labourers, nomadic communities and the countless undocumented people who, after having been recognised as worthy citizens and voters for more than 70 years, will suddenly run the risk of becoming stateless and candidates for detention camps," the Archbishop added in a statement issued by the Diocesan Education Society.

The Society incidentally runs a majority of the English medium schools in the coastal state, which avails financial grants from the Goa government, a practice which Sawaikar now wants the Church to shun, according to his tweet.

On Sunday, Goa's Transport Minister and BJP MLA Mauvin Godinho had warned Ferrao against meddling in governance.

"No religious head has got a right to interfere in the governance of a state or a country, or to comment as that will take opposition on a communal basis. They (religious heads) should not even be indirectly seen as inciting some sort of communal pressure. They should not be seen as doing that…this is wrong,” the Transport Minister had said.

The Goa Aam Aadmi Party convenor Elvis Gomes has however, defended the right of the religious leader to make a comment to safeguard the citizens of the country.

"The Archbishop is citizen of India. He has raised this issue as a citizen. There is no harm in saying that there is no need for dividing people of Goa (through CAA)," Gomes told DH on Monday.