TEAM HERALD
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
PANJIM: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday lodged a police complaint against social activist and lawyer Aires Rodrigues for posting obscene picture of Jesus Christ on Facebook.
BJP spokesman Dr Wilfred Mesquita in his complaint to the Director General of Police demanded immediate arrest of Rodrigues, the originator of the post, citing that such religious blasphemy can cause upheavals and communal tension in the State.
Rodrigues condemns the silence of Goa Church over the reported statement of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar comparing his sorrows with those of Lord Jesus Christ, on the Facebook post ~“Pity him not, you people of God! Oh Father, grant Thy grace of our chief minister who has now publicly wailed that he is suffering like Thy son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The stoic silence by the Church on this outrageous and demeaning comparison by the Chief Minister is deafening. A very sorry state of affairs,” the post reads.
Mesquita, in his complaint has raised fears that such an act would lower the secular image of India in the eyes of the world and is likely to cause a backlash from Christian countries against India.
“This picture is highly blasphemous because as a Christian I do not believe Lord Jesus Christ could make such an obscene gesture which is an insult to my faith and hurts the sentiments of every Christian,” Mesquita has said adding “a picture of Lord Jesus making a vulgar gesture is a symbol of vulgarity understood by general public today.”
Reacting to the complaint filed against him by BJP spokesman, Dr Wilfred Mesquita, Advocate Aires Rodrigues argued that the post was without any malice and should offend none; and that it only exposes the “sheer ignorance of the retired politician.”
“Nowhere have I claimed that the picture accompanying the post was that of Jesus Christ,” Rodrigues said, stating that he was born a Catholic, “and shall remain one till the very last, regardless of the differences he may have had over the functioning of the Roman Catholic Church in Goa.” Rodrigues added, “We are in a democracy and freedom of speech and expression is fundamental.”
Arguing that such attempts to “scuttle the free mind and the Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the Constitution, by misusing police machinery,” Rodrigues said it was clear that the dark days of Emergency appeared to be looming large, with National Security Act having been notified in the State, reasons for which, will now become evident.”
Adv Rodrigues said that he would like to remind his good friend, Mesquita of the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “I like Christ, but not Christians. Christians are so unlike Christ.”
