Ours is a multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural country. Fanatical organizations, whose leaders belong to the fringes of self-righteous renegades, or people who have “rough edges in their personalities”, should not be allowed to spoil the cordial relations that exist between various communities.
The BJP government in Goa came to power under the leadership of Manohar Parrikar with the support of a large section of the Catholic population and probably also of the Muslim community. Parrikar has rightly promised a ‘Goa model’ of the BJP in this little peaceful paradise. Goa should continue to remain a secular State where people of different religions and different cultural backgrounds should be allowed not only to practice their religion but also practice their varied social customs. Goans do not need people with divisive tendencies and without a liberal frame of mind, to be moral police, to dictate to them how they should behave or what customs they should follow. India is a democratic country; why should anybody’s freedom to enjoy a personal lifestyle be curbed or policed?
Do all these practices (or malpractices) – curtailment of individual freedom, imposition of one’s own fanatic ideas, injecting the poison of enmity between and within communities – indicate that they are in accordance with the teachings that Sri Ram imparted to his true followers?
It is surprising that the supremo of the Sri Ram Sene publicly declaredon Goan soil that Manohar Parrikar himself would inaugurate the Goa unit of Ram Sene. It is true that Sri Ram Sene has RSS links and so has Parrikar. But that is no reason to bring in sanctimonious characters into the State, to turn the much required and much desired ‘change’, the change that was promised by Parrikar himself, into a change for the worse. Parrikar should think seriously before welcoming fanatical organizations into the State that contaminates the cordial atmosphere which is the essence of Goan people and will vitiate the peaceful coexistence of different religions and different communities that Goa has been known for. Being an able administrator, it would be in Parrikar’s own interest to keep fanaticism out of the State. After all and he should know it, prevention is better than cure.
