Dear Alexandre Kindly publish this letter Stephen Dias
Pramod Sawant seems to be working overtime to convince his 'masters' and his vote bank that he is nothing more than a dyed-in-the-wool saffron RSS bigot. Perhaps he has realized that he owes his position to a party that has a proven track-record of promoting those who show fascist thinking. The Pramod Sawant we see now has been brainwashed by his training in the RSS philosophy and like his other brainwashed brethren, has lost his ability to think for himself. Like the blind leading the blind, he allows his Fuhrer to tell him what to think and do. And being the cowards they are, the only thing they can do is use violence against the poor and weak, who are unable to stand up to their intimidation tactics. Let me say this. In the past, before India was united into the country it is now, external aggression was common and the Mughals and later Europeans controlled the county for large periods of time. The seeds of dissension were sowed long before, but especially courtesy of the British Divide and Rule concept, unity was a hard-fought-for prize. It took brave men like Tilak, Gandhiji, Patel, Nehru to unite us so that we could show a united face to our colonialists. If it was not for them, Britain would never have given India its independence. It fell on the shoulders of these great men to lead the country in its infancy. People like Bhimrao Ambedkar, whose birthday we all celebrated on 14th April just a few days ago, was given the job of drafting the Constitution. And it was due to his wisdom that India has a modern, secular, democratic Constitution. It is because of these strong roots of freedom and equality that India has made such great progress compared to its neighbours. Unfortunately, in the last decade of Fascism that India has been subjected to, we have swiftly slipped from the status of a developing nation to even below countries like Bangladesh. I am a Catholic and the Constitution allows me freedom to profess and practice my faith. Hinduism is an age-old way of life and practice in our country and it is as old as mankind itself as it evolved with time and over the years. My ancestors were probably Hindus until they along with many others were probably converted to Christianity after the conquest of Goa by Afonso de Albuquerque. Many of those converted in Goa were the Sudras and other tribes who were exploited by the Marathas and the Brahmins. Many Chardos also converted, perhaps for better prospects. However the upper caste Brahmins were not oppressed and in fact remained part of the elite. This I remember as I grew up in those days. Soon the last of us who actually lived through those times may not be left to give witness and then the government will be unimpeded in their quest to re-write history. A very dangerous thing indeed. I have to hope that honest and thorough researchers will keep the truth burning bright. One very interesting article I read online recently by Amita Kanekar - "Shaiva v/s Vaishnava in Portuguese Goa" - for instance gives a detailed account of provable facts showing the positive dynamic between upper class Hindus and the British. In hindsight, even though my ancestors might have been converted, I have no regrets and prefer to remain a Catholic, and much more importantly, to try and always be a good and ethical person, because it appeals to my reason and intellect. It is disgusting that a Chief Minister is debasing himself and getting into a 'tu tu main main' over the religious beliefs of Catholics, Muslims and other religions. Of course he is only bothered about Ghar wapsi of people back to Hinduism. A person who does not respect the secular values enshrined in our Constitution is a misfit as a CM of any state of the republic. Every religion has had a dark history and must be forgiven for the distant past. We have to move forward doing the best we can from today. This dark past is true for Hinduism also. Dear Mr. Pramod Sawant, Hinduism has been modified and made acceptable by abolishing Sati and thus saving lakhs of widows who otherwise were forced to immolate themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands. Also the ugly practice of child marriage was banned. The exploitation of the backwards, low caste dalits who did the work of scavengers was stopped. Your belief in the existence of forced conversions in the past does not mean you can take away the free will of people today. Let everyone choose their religion and their practices. Pramod Sawant is obsessed with raking up the ghosts of the past by breaking down places of worship of all other religions. But does he know that as per the Constitution if he is not secular, he cannot continue as CM? Let bygones be bygone and let us all live together in peace and harmony. Let us celebrate the goodness of Christmas, Easter, Ganesh, Diwali, Eid and any other religious festival with gaiety and solemnity. We need all religions to profess equality, brotherhood, sacrifice for the holistic development of our society at large.