Row over shifting Anjadiv
Church
Sandesh Prabhudesai
24 August 2002
The Bharatiya Janata Party government
in Goa as well as at the centre has once again come
under a clout of being anti-minorities, but this time
over an issue of shifting of five-century old Christian
church for the national security purpose.
The Christian community in Goa is agitated
over the defence ministry's directive to shift the Church
of Our Lady of Brotas, built in 1500 on the Anjadiv
island in Goa-Karnataka border area, due to the Sea
Bird, Asia's biggest naval project built by the Indian
government.
While the Sea Bird officials have already
instructed to shift the Church by May next year, the
BJP chief minister Manohar Parrikar as well as Pratapsing
Rane, the opposition leader and former Congress chief
minister, have supported the move of the defence ministry.
"The hidden agenda of the BJP is slowly
coming into action", alleges Goenchea Krisavancho Ekvott
(Voice of Goan Christians) as the chief minister made
the statement last week in the Assembly, without even
taking the local Church into confidence.
Surprised with the stand of the Congress,
they are now faxing protest letters even to Congress
president Sonia Gandhi, besides prime minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee, requesting their intervention.
The Anjadiv island was handed over
to the defence ministry over a decade ago, under a condition
that the pilgrims would be allowed to visit the island
at the annual feast held on 2 February. Church of St
Francis de Assisi, yet another one on the island, is
now almost in ruins.
The historical Church however enjoys
an archaeological value as it was built much before
the Portuguese invaded Goa. In fact it is considered
to be the first Latin rite church in Asia, which was
built even 150 years before the Taj Mahal was built
by Shahjahan.
The church at the Anjadiv island -
approximately 3.70 lakh hectares - falls under the jurisdiction
of Archdiocese of Goa. however, the Bishop of Karwar
(Karnataka) has been entrusted with the religious activities
there and the parish priest of nearby church at Binaga
has been visiting there regularly.
The letter sent by Sea Bird station
commander Comdr B R Rao to the Catholic Association
of Goa intimated to make necessary arrangements to shift
the church from the island by May 2003. The construction
activities are progressing at a fast pace and visitors
will not be allowed, keeping the national security in
mind, it stated.
Incidentally, while handing over the
island to the defence ministry somewhere around 1989
during the Congress regime, the Goa government had put
a condition to allow the religious activities there.
Even the BJP chief minister Parrikar had released Rs
25,000 last year, to repair the church.
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