Sandesh Prabhudesai
16 October 2000
Rather than welcoming the first ever two-day national level meeting of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad scheduled in Goa from 18 October, the Hindu-dominated state known for practising communal harmony is getting agitated over communal designs of the fundamentalists.
"It is a shame for us that the seeds of yet another communal riot are going to be sown in Goa, the state which has never witnessed a single such riot till date even during religious aggression of the Portuguese", says Yagneshwar Nigley, a retired government servant.
The VHP's 'kendriya margadrashak mandal' (central advisory board) is meeting here to prepare itself for the Dharm Sansad scheduled in January 2001 in Prayag. Its main agenda, obviously, is to decide date of beginning construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.
Around 200 sant, mahant, acharya and sanyasis are expected to attend the two-day meet at Ramnathi to also discuss the issue of alleged conversion by the Church and to counter the threat to Hinduism in this light.
"Goa is an ideal place not for such divisive activities but to have inter-faith dialogue by treating all religions on par", opines Eduardo Faleiro, the Rajya Sabha MP of the Congress here, while dubbing it as anti-national activity.
He has appealed to the state government – a coalition government of Congress rebels led by Francisco Sardinha and the Bharatiya Janata Party – to strictly implement the directives sent by the National Human Rights Commission and restrain the fundamentalists from making any provocative statement.
While Nigley, who also heads the state unit of the Committee for Eradication of Superstition, fears that this meet would disrupt peaceful atmosphere in the tourist state, he is equally worried about the situation where Christians are looking at Hindus suspiciously rather than with trust and faith.
"How will Hindu society benefit by building the so-called monument", asks Datta Naik, working president of the Samata Andolan. The Hindus can regain self-respect by eradicating rampant casteism and superstition which, he feels, the fundamentalists like the VHP do not want to touch.
Faleiro takes a step ahead by admitting that fundamentalism and extremism is growing in all religions of the world including Christianity. Though he does not wish to comment on the statement made by Pope John Paul II that only Christianity can lead humankind to salvation, he feels that all religious faiths lead to salvation.
Naik, also an industrialist, however is equally irritated over participation of young leading businessmen in such fundamental activities rather than playing a competitive role in a global market. "Our Hindu society is emerging as a distilled conservation bottled in pseudo modernism", he comments.
Srinivas Dempo, chairman of a leading industrial house in Goa, however does not feel anything wrong in heading the organising committee of the two-day meet. "Though I am not a VHP member, it is my duty as a Hindu to see that the stay of all our religious heads is comfortable during their stay here", he says.
While Ashok Chowgule, another local leading industrialist, heads the VHP units of Goa and Maharashtra, he has also succeeded in roping in Shivanand Salgaoncar, another leading industrialist, as the reception committee chairman. All three of them also represent Goa's powerful mining lobby.
Contrary to Dempo's opinion that the outcome of the two-day meet in Goa will not hamper prospects of India's economic future, Naik calls it criminal for any broad-minded businessman to participate in such self-destructive activities rather than concentrating on upbringing the human life by facing challenges of globalisation.
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