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Published by Kalchakra Samachar Trust, C-6/28, Safdurjung Development Area, New Delhi-110016, India. Phone : 91-11-656-6800, FAX : 91-11- 651-9080, Editor-in-Chief Vineet Narain, E-Mail - [EMAIL PROTECTED] (The web-hosts are in no way responsible for the contents). http://www.kalchakra.org/shockingrepgoa.html Shocking report from Goa Why Christians are harassing the Hindus? The Roman Catholic Church in Goa has maintained an aggressive posture right from the day the state was liberated by the Indian defence forces with the help of the freedom fighters. This activism is directly linked with its assertion as the conscience-keeper of Goans though at best it represents the minority Christian community comprising 28% of the state population. Aggressiveness has also been associated with violence whenever the Church espoused causes like those of "Ramponkars" (traditional fishermen), official language and medium of instruction at the primary school level, Konkan Railway project or the latest regarding the copper alloy plant of M/s Meta Strips Ltd, which has come up at the Verna industrial estate set up by the state Industrial Development Corporation. Obliviously, the Church is aspiring to recapitulate the dominant role it had played during the colonial rule of the Portuguese. The sudden end to foreign domination in December 1961 had pushed the Church into a grave identity crisis, for, it has been a part of the ruling elite for nearly four and a half centuries. The integration of Goa into secular India meant an unprecedented compromise and co-existence for which the church was not prepared. After all, the Roman Catholic Church still believes that it represents the most superior human race in the world. Unfortunately for the Church, most of its wild cries meant to attract world attention, have culminated into lost causes. Also the Church has been functioning as a stumbling block in the path of the socio-economic development of Goa. In the process, it has only earned contempt from the majority Hindu community comprising 65% of the state population. The Hindus have been maintaining their traditional low profile. After all, they do not have an aggressive religious institution to guide their destiny or the lines of the Roman Catholic Church. The latest wild cry of the Church is in respect of the Rs. 300 crore copper alloy plant established by the Khaitan group. The clergy has launched a systematic misinformation campaign against the project by devising the bogey of environmental pollution. All the concerned government agencies have cleared the project and all the authorities concerning metallurgy including, the Indian Institute of Science, have ruled that the state-of-that-art Induction process incorporated by the company from Spanish technology is absolutely safe and that there is no cause for apprehension. Even the National Human Rights Commission rejected a petition filed on behalf of the agitators alleging pollution. The Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is a qualified metallurgist (he is a qualified engineer from IIT, Mumbai) has ruled on the Floor of the Assembly that the copper alloy plant does not cause pollution. Yet, fuelled continuously by the Church, the Anti Meta-Strips Citizens Action Committee comprising Christians has been conducting a violent agitation against the project. They resorted to violence at the Vasco court where the case had come up for hearing; they tried to blow up a bridge, which proved abortive due to the timely arrival of the police; they stoned buses and injured several passengers; they killed a police head constable; they paralyzed road communications; and they organized hunger strike in Panaji. The former coalition government headed by Mr. Francisco Sardinha ordered closure of the plant pending a fresh inquiry by scientists drawn from different parts of the country as per the suggestions of Dr. Raghunathrao Mashelkar, Director General CSIR. The Supreme Court set aside the government order and allowed the factory to carry on its activity. Last month, when the plant was about to complete the entire process of manufacturing, there was a big blast in the furnace thereby paralyzing the activity for at least a month. The factory management has alleged sabotage and has requested the police to scrutinize the credentials of even some of the employees cautiously soon after the explosion, senior executives of the company received telephone calls threatening more such incidents. Government agencies like the Inspectorate of Factories and Boilers, however, say that the explosion might have been caused due to the use of sub-standard material, an insinuation which the management rejected outright. Dr. S.R. Jindal, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Jindal Aluminum Ltd, who has an excellent record of numerous philanthropic and humanitarian activities to his credits and who is a well-known crusader against corruption and environmental pollution, is the promoter of the copper alloy plant. He is a much-disillusioned man so far as Goa is concerned. In his communications to the government and professional bodies like the Goa Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Confederation of Indian Industry, Dr. Jindal has pointed out that it was the government of Goa, which had invited the company to set up the plant. Having done so the government was operating under pressure from certain vested interests to nip the project in the bud. "I was absolutely new to Goa knowing nothing, though I have learnt a lot now and also learnt a good lesson from infamous Goans", he remarked. The Anti Meta-Strips a Citizens Action Committee echoes the arrogance of the Church. It simply does not want the plant in Goa. Nor isit interested in listening to reason or even to the highest expert opinion in the country. Its role was totally negative when the Sardinha government appointed the scientists committee to probe the allegation of pollution, even if there was a latent one. The Christian priests were present at the venue of all the violent incidents including the one at the Vasco court. The Former Chief Minister Luisinho Faleiro, who even called on the Archbishop, Mgr. Raul Gonsalves, to tame the clergy, had regretted the agitation. What upset him the most was that religious places were being used to fuel the anti-Meta Strips stir. He had said that the erstwhile colonial practice of ringing church bells to gather the faithful to launch tirades against the locals, was being resurrected by the Churuch lately in Goa. Worse still was the casteism that was raising its ugly head within the Church organization. Mr. Falerio who was the Chief Minister when the stir was being intensified. Alleged that the Brahmin Christian priests had targeted him because he was a non-Brahmin. He also pointed out to a similar situation that was faced by his predecessor Mr. Ravi Naik, who belonged to the masses. Goan Christians observe the caste system (Almost meticulously). It was left to a respected Christian and member of the National Commission for Minorities, to expose the role of the Church in Goa in relevance to the anti-Meta Strips agitation. The Commission member, Mr. Joseph John, had come down to Goa along with the Supreme Court Advocate, Dr. Vincent Panikulangara, following cross complaints from the management and the agitators. Mr. John recounts vividly in his report that he and the advocate were about to be burnt alive in their car by the Christian activists as the latter suspected that they were Meta Strips men. "They wanted to burn us along with the car. Immediately, tipper lorries unloaded gravel on either side of the road, coconut trees were cut and put across the roads so as to isolate the area". By the time the police arrived on the spot, a Christian priest too appeared on the scene. Mr. John, was in fact, a guest of the Archbishop. The police managed to save them and carry them to a lodge where the twosome spent a sleepless night. The Next day, they camouflaged themselves as hotel staff and proceeded to Dabolim airport for the safety of their lives. This is type of agitation sponsored by the Church. The Commission member says: "There is a hidden agenda behind the agitation to cause political destabilization by creating communal tension using the Church; that a large number of priests, nuns and Church leaders are actively involved in the agitation; that the Church pulpit and resources are profusely made use of to promote the agitation; and that nuns play a prominent role in drawing the village women folk into the agitation". Some other findings of Mr. John are that the attacks on government and private vehicles are launched from the churches and church institutions and that road blockades are crested near such institutions. Mr. John points out that so far the majority community had not retaliated to the violence unleashed by the Christians because it was localized in Christian pockets. This is what a Christian had to say about the Catholic Church in Goa. The identity crisis of the Church manifested itself during the very first general elections held in Goa by the end of 1963. The Church openly espoused the cause of separate identity for this part of the country, as it was a Union Territory then. The Church cast its lot with the now-defunct United Goans Party. The people however elected the UGP to function in the opposition. The second glaring instance of the identity crisis was overwhelmingly felt during the historic Opinion Poll held in January 1967, to decide about the future political status of Goa and its overland pockets of Daman and Diu, separately. This time also the Church supported the separate identity cause. The separatists won the battle of the ballot. The third manifestation of the identity crisis of the Church was glaringly visible during the agitation of Ramponkars (traditional fishermen). Ramponkars with the help of the Church launched a sustained agitation against the government plan to encourage mechanized fishing, the twin objective of which was for providing gainful employment of the sons of the soil and exploiting the rich marine resources. The Christian priests participated actively in the agitation and they were conspicuous by their presence whenever a mechanized fishing boat or trawler was burnt by Ramponkars. The then Chief Minister, Mrs. Shashikal Kakodkar, went to the Azad Maidan in Panaji to expose the role of the Church in the agitation, which should have otherwise been secular because like Christians there are many Hindus who are also Ramponkars. She also sent a letter to Archbishop Raul Gonsalves to say that her Government was quite competent to handle the secular issue of Ramponkars and that the Church need not take decisions on its own. Another peculiarity of the Church-sponsored agitations is that every time the Church authorities seek the intervention of the Vatican to exert pressure on the Central Government to toe its line of thinking. It began with the Ramponkar agitation, it happened during the stir against the Konkan railway project and it is happening even now in respect of the Meta Strips project. The Indian Government had tied up with a Scandinavian country for assistance to build deep-sea fishing trawlers for exploiting the rich marine resources within the exclusive economic zone. At the instance of the Church in Goa, the Vatican prevailed upon that country to terminate the agreement with India to build trawlers. Such is the ferocity of the Church politics in Goa. When the Central Government announced the novel scheme of laying the longest railway in the country with the participation of the private sector, the Catholic Church in Goa girded up its loins to sabotage the project, which otherwise was being awaited for long in the konkan area. The Church mobilized the support of the Christian politicians including the then Chief Minister, Dr. Wilfred de Souza, to scuttle the scheme. Two expert committees and finally the Commission headed by Justice Ojha put the seal of approval on the alignment announced for the railway by the Konkan Railway Corporation. The people who mattered in the Church, including writers, architects, engineers, doctors etc. belonging to the Christian community were singing to the tune of the church that the cultural heritage of Goa and its identity would be destroyed by the new railway. The alignment passes two and half kms. from the Old Goa Church complex but the argument that was put forward was that the moving trains would damage the old monuments built by the Portuguese. This was despite the fact that churches situated in the proximity of the century old Vasco-Colem railway built by the Portuguese had remained intact all these years. When the Ojha Commission report came, the then Prime Minister, Mr. Narasimha Rao, issued instructions to the Corporation to speedily complete the project. Now, many Christians travel by Konan railway. Last year, the Church authorities even requested the Corporation to run specials to handle the heavy turnout of the devotees on the occasion of the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, the patron saint of Goan Catholics. The Identity crisis of the Catholic Church in Goa is thus a continuous process. Unfortunately, there is no matching response from the majority Hindu community. However, it must be said about the average Christian in Goa that he is more tolerant than the Church and maintains his cool despite grave provocations by the Church. - This interesting piece was accidentally found by Gaspar Almeida, Associate, www.goa-world.com , who researches all and everything Goan on the Net (and is forwarded by him for those who do not have access to the Net Resources). www.goa-world.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover http://www.goa-world.com http://www.live365.com/stations/61664 Live Konkani Music http://www.mahableshwar.com/ Addresses: Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL to this page: http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/gulf-goans Yahoo! 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