Team Herald
PANJIM: Civil Society leaders on Saturday were firm that former RSS Goa prant sanghchalak chief Subhash Velingkar has to apologise for his “horrendous” act of making such a derogatory statement regarding the patron saint of Goa, St Francis Xavier.
They also asked the protesters to “diffuse the tense situation across the State” and called upon the protesters not to derail the people’s agitation against the horrible destruction of Goa’s environment, ecology, identity and land.
Speaking to mediapersons at Azad Maidan, Panjim, Dr Oscar Rebello said, “Prof Velingkar made mean, spiteful and rotten statement and clearly the people of Goa are upset and absolutely furious about it. But the fear is that government dalals, who are involved in land conversions will infiltrate and deploy their people and tell them to pelt stones on temples or ghumtis and whole thing will erupt into Hindu-Catholic conflagration which neither the police nor the State will be able to control.
He said, “Dalals want it to happen so that all land conversions will get approved and the efforts of activists will go in vain and Goans will be losers.”
Appealing to the protesters to clear the streets as quickly as possible, Dr Rebello said, “Do not give politicians an excuse to exploit the situation. What Prof Velingkar has done is horrendous, he has to apologise and it is in his hands to diffuse the situation. The issue of land conversions will get derailed due to stupid statement of Prof Velingkar.”
Goa Foundation director Claude Alvares said, “I firmly request Velingkar to withdraw his statement on St Francis Xavier. If there is a conflict in society then Velingkar will go down in history as the person who ignited this conflagration. We are hurt that he made this statement. I am a Christian, but I go to temples and celebrate Ganesh festival and visit Muslim friends. But this will rupture our Goan society which has been cohesive for so many years.”
Meanwhile, expressing concern over the current attempts to divide society along religions in Goa, which is famous all over the world for religious unity, the civil society movement ‘Goemkar, Ek Paul Ekcharachem’ urged Goans to maintain peace and respect each other’s religious sentiments.