TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: A major portion of the holy relics of St Queen Ketevan of Georgia remain preserved in the Archaeological Museum Velha Goa situated at Old Goa, even after a part of the relics were handed over to Georgia government earlier this month.
ASI Goa Circle assistant archaeologist (museum and under water archaeology wing) Dr Kishore Raghubans said one part of the relics were gifted to Georgia and that other portion of the relics have been preserved in the Archaeological Museum Velha Goa at Old Goa.
He said it was a good gesture by the Government of India to hand over the relics.
The handing over of relics of St Queen Ketevan to Georgia, by Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on July 2, came as a surprise to the people of Goa, who learnt of it when the minister thanked the people of Goa during handover ceremony in Georgia and later Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme last Sunday too thanked people of Goa. On the same day, BJP national president J P Nadda, who was in Goa, spoke of the need for the BJP to reach out to the minorities.
All said and done, the people of Goa were in the dark on this important historical issue as they were neither consulted nor taken into confidence.
It was a unilateral decision of the Government of India to handover the relics that were excavated and preserved in Goa to Georgia where St Queen Ketevan is revered and worshipped and Goans do appreciate this gesture that has fostered strong bonds of friendship between India and Georgia.
Questions, however, arise that in a democratic set up it is a matter of protocol and procedure that needs to be adhered to and in this context the least courtesy demanded that the Church in Goa and people of Goa could have been consulted and taken into confidence on this.
Fr Joaquim Loiola Pereira, Secretary to the Archbishop of Goa and Daman told Herald that the relics of St Ketevan were never in the possession of the Goa Church and that they came to know about the handing over through the media.
“I was connected with the excavation in 2005. But the relics never remained in the Church possession and it was in the custody of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). We came to know about it (handing over) through media,” Fr Loiola Pereira said.
Earlier, in September 2017 the relics of the 17th century Georgian queen had been taken to Georgia on lease for a period of a year and were revered by the people of Georgia as they were displayed in different churches across the country.
