Why should Archbishop oppose CAA when crores of people are supporting CAA?

Panaji, February 10: Heading aloud in the valley of unsound beliefs, while crores of people including Goans are supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act and the aligned new laws, Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Rev Filipe Neri Ferrao, has urged the Central government to immediately and unconditionally revoke the divisive and discriminatory CAA and stop quashing the right to dissent, drawing criticism from the BJP.

 

He further appealed to the government not to implement the proposed countrywide National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR). Diocesan Centre for Social Communications Media, a wing of the Goa Church, in a statement on Saturday said, "The Archbishop and the Catholic community of Goa would like to appeal to the government to listen to the voice of millions in India, to stop quashing the right to dissent and, above all, to immediately and unconditionally revoke the CAA and desist from implementing the NRC and the NPR."

 

 

However, BJP's state general secretary Narendra Sawaikar asked why the Archbishop was opposing CAA, when it was being supported by crores of people. "Archbishop says that CAA should be withdrawn as it is being opposed. My question is Why? When Crores of people are supporting CAA, including Goans," Sawaikar, the former Lok Sabha member from South Goa, tweeted.

 

BJP MLA and state Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho said the Church should not be making comments that will bring about opposition on a communal basis. "I have one thing very clear. No religion has a right to interfere in the governance of any state or any country or comment which will bring about an opposition on communal basis. They should not even be indirectly seen as inciting some sort of communal pressure. They should not have been seen as doing that, that is what is wrong," Godinho said. "The intention behind that may be good. (But his statement) is totally wrong as I see it. What is wrong is wrong. A spade is a spade," he added.

"There is serious concern that NRC and NPR will result in direct victimisation of the underprivileged classes, particularly Dalits, adivasis, migrant labourers, nomadic communities and the countless undocumented people who, after having been recognised as worthy citizens and voters for more than 70 years, will suddenly run the risk of becoming stateless and candidates for detention camps," the church added.

 

There has been widespread discontent and open protests throughout the country and even abroad against the CAA, NRC and NPR, which are forecasting a systematic erosion of values, principles and rights that have been guaranteed to all citizens in the Constitution, the release said. "Eminent citizens, including top intellectuals and legal luminaries, have taken a studied and unequivocal stand against the CAA, NRC and NPR", it noted.

 

This is after the Church on Christmas last year had extended intelligent collaboration to the government to build a society which promotes integral development of the human in harmony with the environment and where the underprivileged will be treated with the compassion. "Anything that vitiates the genuinely Indian spirit can damage the centuries-old secular fabric of our nation", the church had noted.

 

"Goa also witnessed several protests, which transcended the confines of religious and caste affiliation and brought people from all walks of life together on one united platform", said the statement adding that the Christians in India have always been a peace- loving community and deeply committed to the ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity, enshrined in the Constitution. The Goa Assembly had passed a motion congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for enacting CAA.