Sandesh Prabhudesai
1 November 2000
The statement made by Goa's BJP chief minister that Goa church is swadeshi has received a positive response from both the RSS as well as the local church here, but with their own interpretations of a swadeshi church.
Manohar Parrikar, the newly sworn in BJP chief minister, had told this correspondent in an exclusive interview last week that Goa church is swadeshi as they even conduct prayers in Konkani and the Christians at large here are patriotic in nature.
That is the reason, he had claimed, that the BJP had admitted good Catholics rather than corrupt Hindus from the splinter groups of the Congress, which ultimately led to the BJP withdrawing from the erstwhile ruling coalition and forming its own government.
The BJP cabinet in Goa today consists of one Muslim and two Catholic ministers, who claimed that they have responded to BJP president Bangaru Laxman's appeal to the minorities to join the saffron clad.
Though he partly agrees with Parrikar's interpretation of a swadeshi church, Hemant Bakhle, the local RSS general secretary, said the concept of a swadeshi church is beyond use of mere local language in the church and that the RSS chief Sundershanji had raised it with an intention to start a nation-wide debate on it.
According to Bakhle, any church which does not profess that property of the church is property of Rome, does not believe in forcible conversions and is fully patriotic and nationalist in nature is a swadeshi church.
"In that sense, Goa church can definitely be termed as swadeshi church, provided they fit in this criteria", said Bakhle. The RSS has raised the issue mainly against the ongoing church activities in the north-eastern region, he claimed.
Enquiries made at the Bishop House revealed that the church properties here have no control of the Vatican City in any manner and are fully managed and controlled by the local committees of each and every church, except that Bishop's final approval is sought for any decision taken by the village-level committee.
"Love of religion is love of the country. That is what we believe in", quipped Fr Carmo Martins, spokesman of the Goa church, stating that nobody can doubt nationalist credentials of the church in Goa. He also reiterated that Goa church is not involved in any kind of forcible conversions.
"A local church is the one which enters into the mainstream of national life, expresses its faith and worship through science and cultural heritage of the region and adopts external forms of worship through the cultural and religious forms of the people including gestures and postures", stated Fr Martin.
Though he declined to comment on the chief minister's statement stating that interpretations of a swadeshi church vary from person to person, Fr Martins said the church always believed in indigenization by adapting to culture and tradition of local people. "We have adopted all these things", he said.
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