Sandesh Prabhudesai
3 July 2000
Even in Goa, the Christians refuse to believe that foreign hand is involved in attacks against their community or the religious places but point out fingers at communal fanatics which have become suddenly active after the Bharatiya Janata Party took over.
A huge protest rally held on Sunday in Mapusa, which was led by Goa Archbishop Dr Raul Gonsalves, pronounced similar feelings. The bomb blast in Vasco church and the recent brutal killing of Brotehr George K C in Mathura were obviously the major highlights of the rally.
"The recent bomb blast in Vasco church proves the fact that communal discord is being sown also in Goa", said Archbishop Dr Gonsalves, while expressing regrets over the growing incidents of atroicities against Christians in the country.
While appealing to the mamoth rally to pray for peace and religious harmony in the country and express solidarity for a movement against attacks on Christians, he also expressed hope that prime minister A B Vajpayee, as a result of his meet with Pope John Paul II, would take necessary measures to protect Christianity in India.
The major attack however was made by Adv Uday Bhembre, the guest speaker and a thinker, at the rally. "Blaming foreign hand over every atrocity committed against minorities in India has become a fashion for the investigating agencies and government officials", he alleged.
"Present government has done very little to check the growth and activities of a small fundamentalist group which is trying to sow seeds of communal hatred in the name of religion", said Adv Bhembre, making it obvious that he was referring to the groups like Bajrang Dal.
Over 5000 people from the area took out a procession around the city holding huge portrait of Brother George K C as well as placards protesting against the attacks on minorities in the country.
Goa has almost 26 per cent Catholic population spread all along the coastal belt. But the Hindu-Catholic-Muslim harmony here has remained a model for the whole country. In fact the bomb blast in the Church is the first such case taken place in Goa, coincidentally when the BJP-supported coalition government led by Francisco Sardinha is ruling the state.
In spite of suspicion raised in the past of some communal fanatics having hand behind the bomb blast, the police insist that the ISI is behind it, which the BJP had also echoed here soon after the blast.
In fact the local Congress leaders had come out openly against it, suspecting it to be a government-sponsored act. A central team led by party leader Ajit Jogi had also visited the state a fortnight ago to collect first-hand information of the incident.
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