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Church goes after Goa Congress

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

The future of the Congress in Goa appears dismal if the antagonistic approach taken by the all-powerful Church towards the ruling party's Catholic leaders, including Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro, is any indication.

The Church's disgust at the ruling party came out in the open when Archbishop Raul Gonsalves publicly denied the chief minister's claim that the latter had ordered a judicial inquiry into the pollution angle of the controversial multi-crore Meta Strips project as suggested by the former.

The Church however maintains its demand to conduct an inquiry into the merciless beating up of two priests along with the protesting villagers by the police when the anti-Meta Strips demonstrators had ransacked the court in Vasco on September 7.

The issue had arisen as the court had summoned people of all the three villages, as the controversial company had indicted them as accused along with the leaders. Locals of the three Catholic-dominated villages have literally waged a street war against the Rs 2.5 billion copper-melting plant.

Claiming that the police unnecessarily lathi-charged the innocent in the court premises, the Church demanded an iinquiry into the incident "in order to avoid unnecessary confrontation between the Church and the state".

Probably fearing the wrath of the Church, Faleiro has ordered a probe into the pollution aspect while also not ruling out the possibility of optionally having a public hearing by a retired high court judge.

Though Faleiro made this statement soon after meeting Archbishop Gonsalves followed by an official letter, the latter was quick enough to deny it. The Bishop House even justified the priests using Churches to mobilise public opinion on the issue and appeal to them to come on the streets in protest.

"It is a concrete expression of the commitment of the Church to the promotion of human values and the social well-being", says the Church communiqué, in response to Faleiro's appeal to the Bishop to instruct his priests not to make Church announcements till the time-bound inquiry is completed.

Though Faleiro has in writing committed to the Bishop to scrap the project 'if the inquiry finds it as a polluting one', the Church feels it should be scrapped outright. "We cannot trust that this government would implement the pollution measures at a later stage", says Father Carmo Martins, the Church spokesman.

"It is a process of secrecy, disinformation, misinformation and repression. It happened at the time of the Konkan railway agitation, Nylon 6,6 agitation and is happening now", states the editorial of Renovacao, the church bulletin. Its front page, with photos of the injured priests, highlights writer Arundhati Roy's statement: "Who runs this country?... There is a hole in the flag". It also has extracts from her book.

"Congress rule is the most corrupt rule Goa has seen", says Fr Martins, making it clear that it is not one Meta Strips the Church is harping about. The hints are clear that the Church cannot be taken for granted by the Congress, which has been coming to power here by gaining the whole lot of 30 per cent minorities in Goa.

The Church also appears to have not taken lightly the assault on six priests by a young Catholic boy from Faleiro's constituency soon after the Lok Sabha poll on September 6. Referring indirectly to the suspicion that the Congress was behind the attack, the Church states: "If there have been malicious intentions behind the act, then proper justice must be done."

The whole episode and even the 'reported stray incidents' of few priests appealing to the people to vote for the BJP candidate in South Goa to topple the Congress candidate thus becomes hard to put down as isolated ones. In which case, the ruling party may find itself in deep trouble.

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