The law too has its limits. Even when followed by the book, it sometimes leads to injustice. As the village of Velim, full of peace loving people, many of them seafarers who toil hard and send money back home, ready themselves for a candle lit vigil in protest against the filing of a charge-sheet against 20 parishioners, in the Velim church attack case of February 26, 2012, including Father Lucio Dias, the South Goa Episcopal Vicar, who was the Parish priest of Assolna on the day of Velim “church attack”, as well as the former Parish priest of Velim Father Romano Gonsalves. The filing of the charge sheet has once again ripped the open the scars which were slowly healing and exposed old wounds.
In terms of timing, this couldn’t have come at a worse possible time for the government, which actually won over Velim after the church attack. The then Congress MLA Filipe Neri Rodrigues who was a minister was blamed squarely for the “raids” conducted by Income Tax officials on the Church, where officials went up to the home of the Parish priest to ask questions. In an outpouring of anger at their priest being insulted and shown disrespect, locals stormed the Church and attacked the officials. Filipe Neri Rodrigues lost his assembly seat on that very day, though the elections were held less than a fortnight later. The people who voted for BJP backed independent Benjamin Silva did so with a hope that the Parrikar government would withdraw cases against 1000 unknown people. Both the Parrikar and the Parsekar governments failed to do so. These cases severely affected the career prospects of those youth wanting to go abroad and work on ships. At the same time, even those with jobs, who had come home to vote in the elections, found their companies not taking them back, since they now had criminal cases against them.
When the charge sheets were filed last month, the names of 22 people came up. Apart from the two priests, most of the 20 others who were named are all members of the Velim church committee and very respected parishioners. The anger of the people has increased manifold due to the mysterious cherry picking of the 22 who were named and charged with attacking the police and Income Tax officials.
The police and the law and order machinery must realise that some cases need not have logical by the book conclusions. An affront to the Church, especially if people are led to believe that their Parish priest’s home was “raided” by officials who came without a prior appointment, will have repercussions. Let us not forget Father Romanov rang the church bell, signalling an extreme emergency. When this is followed by the presence of a police force inside the Church premises, even a 75 year old grand-father will pick up his walking stick in defence of his Church.
All Velim needed was quiet healing. What it has got is a brutal reminder of a black day they would like to forget. And when these memories come wrapped in a charge-sheet where more of their own including priests are accused, the cup of anger will be filled to the brim. That is what has happened.
This doesn’t augur well for the BJP. In the 2012 assembly elections, the lead in Velim for BJP backed Independent Benjamin Silva was one of the highest in Goa. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP was far behind the Congress in this assembly segment, a sign of how the tide has turned.
The reason why the political fallout of this, for the BJP, needs to be mentioned is because sadly, it is only this reality which may cause this government to do a serious rethink and look at withdrawing cases and the charge-sheet.
The BJP has already dealt with parents of children who support grants for English Medium schools, in a manner which is unbecoming of any mature political ruling party. It now has a chance to offset this by using both heart and mind. People who have never had a brush with the law, should not suffer because they tried to protect their Church and retaliated in anger when it was attacked.
Whatever be the reason, this government should be bigger than that and show that it is indeed a Goa government for all Goans. At the very least let the government do it for its own sake and its own political future.
