TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Benaulim MLA Caitu Silva on Saturday wondered why certain priests come out only on the eve of election to tell the people that the BJP is communal. While addressing a corner meeting at Benaulim on Saturday in the presence of BJP candidate Narendra Sawaikar, Caitu sought to know why the Priests tell the people to support the Congress only during election time. “I have no problem even if they ask the people to support the congress.
“But, I want to know why the priests do not tell the people two months in advance to support the Congress. Why do they tell us to support the Congress only on the eve of election,” he asked.
Apparently referring to the campaign launched by Gujarat based Jesuit Priest, Fr Cedric Prakash against the BJP, Ciatu said the priest runs a centre in Gujarat, but no one has thrown him out from Gujarat till date.
Demanding to know how Churches will be destroyed in Goa if the BJP comes to power, the Benaulim MLA pointed out that the Parrikar government has made a budgetary provision of Rs 10 crore for the Old Goa exposition. “In what way is the BJP government communal? Have they not resolved the language issue? Have they not increased the grant for Dalgado Konkani academy to Rs 30 lakh?” he asked.
The Benaulim MLA also came down heavily on Fr Eremito Rebello. “Fr Eremito spoke against the BJP, Congress, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, Luizinho Faleiro, Francisco Sardinha, Damu Naik on the airport issue, but was silent on Churchill on the airport issue,” he said.
Painting a rosy picture of the BJP, Caitu said the BJP today has six Catholic MLAs, besides other supporting MLAs from the minority community. “We are not supporting the BJP just like that. We have not allowed any problem for the minorities in the State”, he said, while reminding the people that the chief minister had stood by him in the face of the legal battle on the Portuguese citizenship issue.
